The Games We Play
by CDV10
Summary: Chris decides to go after what he wants, once and for all.. not knowing that he'll be dealt some surprises along the way. [Done!]
1. Make A Move

Don't own anything. :]

* * *

"Look at her standing over there.. like she _owns_ the place." He sneered.

"She kinda does, Chris."

"... That is _not_ the point!" He growled. "She stands there, like she's all high and mighty, with her arrogant self, bossing everyone else around like the world is her personal playground.. I can't _stand_ people like that." He said, sounding disgusted. It took all the willpower Lita could summon not to start laughing at him. After all, he was far from being the most humble man she knew.

The two of them stood next to each other, leaning on the wall outside of Lita's locker room. She looked at what was holding the Canadian's attention; more like, _who_. Across the hall, was none other than Stephanie McMahon herself, holding a clipboard as she gave instructions to some backstage crew workers. She hadn't seem to have noticed the pair watching her. Chris was "supposedly" keeping Lita company, though he chose to do so coincidentally at the same time the brunette was working.

"Just look at her!" He repeated, for what seemed to be the sixtieth time.

"Yes, Chris, I see her. She's there."

"Thinks she's so great," He spat out bitterly. "Can't even come over and say hello."

Lita rolled her eyes. "She hasn't noticed us."

He snorted. "My ass she hasn't."

"Why don't you go over to her and talk to her? You know you're into her anyways, so why --"

He turned to look at her slowly, his blue eyes turning icy cold. Anyone else would have run, but Lita knew he wouldn't lay a hand on her.

"What did you say?" He asked dangerously.

"You heard me," She shot back. She had stood up to _Kane_, for crying out loud. No way would she ever back down to Chris. "Everyone and their mother knows that you've been into her for the longest time. You're the one that has yet to make a move."

It was true. She had been the object of his obsession for as long as anyone could remember (save for the time he went after Trish, though after that crashed and burned, he returned to his old "flame"). He seemed to be the only one who didn't seem to realize his blinding attraction for the quick-witted brunette.

Chris couldn't believe her audacity. With a "hmph", he turned his attention back to the boss's daughter. He wasn't an idiot. But was he that transparent? The thought was mind-boggling. Could anyone just look at him and tell what he felt for Stephanie? It didn't matter, he quickly concluded. He never acted upon his feelings, no matter how close he came.. he just couldn't do it. He scowled as he watched her work. He felt, deep down, that she would reject him. He just had a feeling. But he was willing to withstand the worst torture the planet had to offer a thousand times before he ever admitted it to anyone. _Ever_.

"Got a match tonight?" He asked, changing the subject.

She sighed. "No, they're signing that contract thing.."

For a moment, he blanked out and had no clue what she was talking about. His confusion made his scowl grow. "Signing between who?"

"Matt and Kane."

Another two idiots. He hated what they were both doing to Lita, yet his pride wouldn't let him admit that either. He had joked to her that she should run away and leave them both to beat the hell out of each other, but part of him was also serious. He couldn't stand either of them.

She watched him scowl. It seemed like that's all he did those days. She followed his line of sight as he went back to watching Stephanie. For the life of her, she could never understand why he never made a move on her. He was handsome, and she knew he could be charming just as quickly as he could be a bastard. She studied his face curiously, which he didn't notice, since he was off in his own little world, thinking of who knew what (he was actually picturing himself tormenting both Matt Hardy and Kane until they both cried like babies). It didn't matter how long she had known this man.. there were times where she still felt she didn't understand him at all.

Across the hall, Stephanie shook hands with a short, chubby man with glasses, and walked off towards the right, studying her clipboard. It was her first day back on the job, and she was going to do things right.

Next to Lita, Chris growled.

"Where in the hell does she think she's going?" He demanded, anger creeping inside him. Lita rolled her eyes again.

"Go make a move, Chris." He shot her a glare. "It's your chance, junior." She said, highly amused.

He turned and watched Stephanie's retreating figure. "But I.."

Lita raised an eyebrow. What's this? He was losing his cool?

As quickly as he had faltered, his trademark smirk came across his features. "You know, I think you're right. I'll go say hello.. for old time's sake."

"Finally.." Before the word was even out of her mouth, he was already strutting over to the youngest McMahon, with that arrogant strut that only he could pull off.

Stephanie paused momentarily as she realized she had forgotten to tell the technicians about the change of lighting that night. "Shit." She mumbled under her breath, frowning. She was rusty all right.

"We meet again, Princess."

Stephanie looked up from her clipboard. She recognized that voice. It was the same voice that had grated on her raw nerves, to the point where she had no choice but to make Triple H almost kill its owner. She collected herself and turned around, finding herself face-to-face with a smirking Canadian.

"Hello Jericho." She said snidely. Her tone merely amusing him, he let his eyes wander down her body. She was looking gorgeous, as usual. He nodded his approval as he looked back up to meet her cool eyes.

"Looking good, Stephanie, looking good.. already back in business, I see. You must have some loyal customers," He said, mock impression in his voice. She rolled her eyes.

"If this is what you came over to talk to me about, then you're wasting my time. I have work to get to."

"Aw, that so?" He tilted his head to one side. "I wouldn't wanna keep you from doing your work.. lest Stephy-wephy get into twubble with her daddy."

She laughed out loud, making his smirk turn into a full grin. "You know, Jericho, you should focus on your match tonight instead of worrying about me so much."

He scowled, displeased with the change in subject. "Oh yeah? Who am I facing, Princess? Enlighten me!" He said, the mocking never leaving his voice.

"Edge." She answered evenly. "And I hope he kicks your sorry ass." She added with a sweet smile.

That was what he loved about her. She never took his shit laying down. She had some guts to talk to him that way. Yet he expected nothing less. His smirk crept back.

"Steph, babe, let me save you some trouble. Don't even watch the match, because the outcome will be yours truly having his hand raised in a clean and easy victory." He spread his arms out and arrogantly spun around for her. She glared at him. He was nothing short of infuriating to her, and he knew it. He stopped when he was facing her again as his smirk grew, a gleam in his eye. Her glare turned into a look of suspicion.

"But then again," He added, "I know you could never resist watching a sexy beast such as myself in action.. especially when I start to get dirty." He re-adjusted his open shirt to show off more of his muscular chest, as Stephanie felt her annoyance with him rising. She was surprised his head wasn't bigger than the arena, with the ego he had.

"Good-bye, Jericho. Break a leg out there during your match.. literally." She sneered at him again before turning around and walking off. He did nothing for her except disgust her.

He watched her walk off, amused, before triumphantly turning and strutting back towards Lita. He gave her a victorious look, while she snickered.

"She's so into me." He said, pulling out some gum from his pocket. "It's so obvious."

"Yeah, so obvious that she's just disgusted by you because you excite her so much." Lita said jokingly, shaking her head as he silently offered her a piece of gum. He popped his piece into his mouth and chewed on it for several moments, while his thoughts returned to what Lita had said earlier.

He scowled. Why _didn't_ he go after Stephanie? She was the only woman he knew that reminded him of himself. The thought of rejection suddenly was overwhelmed by all of his positive traits. What woman in her right mind would turn _him_ down? He was the king of the world for crying out loud. He ran through the list mentally. __

A woman who matched his strength in the ring with her strength in the business world.

A woman who matched his undeniable attractiveness with her gorgeous body.

Hell, she even matched him with her sharp tongue.

At the thought of her tongue, inappropriate images flashed through the Canadian's mind.

Lita raised an eyebrow. She could only imagine what he was thinking of now, as an expression that can only be described as hungry overtook his features.

"You know.." He murmured. "I think you may have been on to something."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, completely confused.

He only smiled.

* * *

Lita groaned later on that night and covered her face with her pillow as her phone rang for what had to have been the tenth time. Chris Jericho was sure as hell persistent, she had to give him that.

Frustrated, she reached over to the phone and picked up.

"For the last time, NO!" She shouted.

"But --" She hung up before he could say another word. She laid down just in time for the phone to start ringing again. She sighed in defeat. She knew he wouldn't stop calling until she did what he wanted. For her sanity's sake, she would have to comply. Reaching over, she answered.

"You just don't give up, do you?" She said, dejectedly.

"The king of the world never gives up, my dear." He said triumphantly, knowing he had won the phone war. She didn't have to see him to know he had that smirk on his face. "So what do you say?"

"Why can't you keep me out of this?"

"Oh come on, it'll be fun." He said, sprawled out in his own hotel room. "Besides Lita, I think you need some excitement in your life."

"Because the drama between Matt and Kane isn't enough, right?"

He frowned and sat up. "I swear, one of these days, I'm going to take _both_ of them out." He spat out angrily.

Lita couldn't help herself and laughed. "Yeah, that'll be the day."

"You need to take your mind off of them. That's all I'm proprosing."

"Take my mind off my problems by helping you get Stephanie?"

"I don't need anyone's help!" Came the angry shout on the other side of the phone.

"Oh, you don't?" She said sarcastically. "Fantastic then! You go get her, and I'll see you next week at work." With that, she hung up.

A few seconds later, the phone was ringing again. She let it ring a few times before answering.

"Change of heart, Christopher?" She said teasingly.

She heard him give a low growl. "Fine.. Ineedyourhelp." He mumbled quickly. She had heard plain as day what he had said, but a moment like this between them was too few and rare to be skipped over that easily.

"I'm sorry Chris, what was that? I didn't quite hear you." She said, and he sighed loudly.

"Ineedyourhelp." He mumbled again, having a steel grip on the phone. It wasn't enough that Stephanie tortured him on a regular basis, but now his best friend was resorting to it too. Fancy that.

"Wow Chris, I must be having some hearing problems because I can't hear you."

"I need your help! Alright? There, I said it. I need your help." He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing.. so are you going to help me or not?"

Help him get the girl she knew he always wanted. Of course she was going to help him. That's what friends did for each other. And he had a point - she did need something to keep her mind off of Kane and Matt. She sighed.

On the other line, Chris raised an eyebrow at the silence. His first instinct had him wondering if she was okay, but then he remembered what his objective was. "Yes or no?" He asked again.

"Yes Chris, yes I'll help you out."

Perfect. He smirked.

"Thanks Lita, you're not gonna regret this."

She hung up the phone and leaned back against her pillow. She thought he was making a big deal out of nothing. All he had to do was get her number, ask her out, take her out to dinner, talk, yadda yadda, she'd be his. Lita would probably do something small like ask for her number for him. Honestly, what was so hard about it? It was rather straight-forward once she thought about it.

If only she knew. 


	2. The Bet

"What do you _mean_ you didn't come up with a plan? It's been six days!" He snarled, his eyes narrowing as he gazed at his so-called partner in crime.

"_Me?_ I thought _you_ had it all down! Here I was thinking you were going to come up with some big elaborate scheme to get Stephanie, and instead, you're mad because _I_ didn't come up with a plan?"

He scowled as he plopped down on a bench. Needless to say, he had caught her completely off guard when he had barged into her locker room, demanding to know what the "status of the situation was".

"I did come up with a plan." He stated in a low voice. "And it's a good one too." He added, looking up at her.

She sat down next to him. "So what's the problem? Are you scared?"

He scoffed. Him, scared? _Never_. "Hardly. It's just, I came up with it as a sort of back up plan. I really didn't want to unleash this on her first."

She raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. She didn't know if he really did have a plan, or if he was just saying he did. You could never tell with him.

"Well Chris, how's this for starters?" She tapped her chin, appearing to be deep in thought. "How about.. you go out there, find Stephanie, and ask her out for dinner tonight."

"Tonight?" He sounded surprised. "But.."

"But what?"

"But tonight's the show. I have a match with Edge and Batista for the IC title."

"Then ask her to go out on another night."

He thought about it and frowned. It seemed too easy. Way easier compared to the plan that he had come with, that was for sure.

"Well, I guess this way will save me time." He mumbled, more to himself than to Lita. She rubbed his back, bringing him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, his eyes full of doubt.

"Ask her just.. like that?"

"Just like that."

* * *

"Steeeephaaaniiieeee.."

The youngest McMahon scowled and looked behing her, only to find Chris Jericho smirking back at her. He must have strolled up behind her without her noticing. He had a knack at showing up when she was the busiest, and it was starting to get under her skin.

"I'm really not in the mood right now, Jericho." She said in an even tone, already feeling annoyed.

"Aw Steph, I just wanted to talk to you. Geez, getting all worked up over nothing.."

"Well, I don't have time to talk." She said, already starting to walk away from him.

_Oh no, not that easily_.

She growled in frustration when she realized he was walking behind her. Spinning around, she gave him a glare that would have melted steel.

"What do you want? Stop following me!" She hit him on the shoulder with her clipboard, which only made him laugh.

"Fine, wanna know what I want?" He said, teasingly.

"What?" She demanded, bracing herself for the insult she knew was coming, not prepared for what he said next.

"Dinner with a gorgeous lady such as yourself."

* * *

"Well?" Lita asked, leaning forward in her seat. "What'd she say?"

"Oh, what I expected." He shrugged. "That hell would freeze over before she ever even considered going out to dinner with me, even if I was the last guy on the planet.. that I was the most arrogant person she had ever come across to believe she would drop everything to go out with me.. and that she hoped I would get my ass kicked tonight. You know, the works."

She winced. "That's kind of harsh.."

"Nah, not really. She's just playing hard to get." He tapped his chin in thought. "Your direct approach didn't work, so we gotta come up with different alternatives."

"_We?_"

"Yup.. you're a woman, you know what a woman wants. You're like my secret weapon." He smiled at her, the first time that whole day. She concluded that she liked his smile more than his scowl. "Tomorrow at Raw, we're gonna start with different approaches.. and I'm telling you, a few weeks from now, she'll be begging me for a chance to go out with me."

Lita laughed as she pictured that image. Now that would be priceless.

"Well Chris, I don't know about all that, but we'll try. If these plans don't work though.."

"We'll go to my back-up plan. Don't worry, I'm going to make her mine if it's the last thing I do."

* * *

**The Next Day..**

"Be _nice?_ That's the best that you could come up with?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well, you know, it wouldn't hurt!" She stated, raising her voice in frustration. "Honestly Chris, is it even possible for you to hold a conversation with her without insulting her once?"

He took another long sip of his water as he let his gaze fall on the crowd in front of him. Damn autograph signings, he thought as he sneered. He could have been back at his hotel sleeping and getting ready for the show that night, or better yet, coming up with better ideas for getting Stephanie than being _nice_.

They both watched as the fans erupted in cheers as none other than Chris Benoit arrived. As for Lita and Chris, well, they were both content to stay back. They had both made their appearances and signed shirts and posters until their fingers screamed for a break, and neither saw a reason to go back. She wasn't up for answering any more questions regarding Kane, and Chris wasn't up for dealing with any more fans, period.

"I really don't know what you're talking about." He finally replied, his eyes scanning the crowd for a familiar face. "I'm always nice."

"Oh really? Well, you could've had me fooled. Don't look at me like that," She laughed as she saw the annoyed look on his face, "After all, weren't you the one that told that one fan to do himself a favor and jump off a bridge because he was wasting your oxygen?"

"Oh come on!" He exclaimed. "The moron was a Triple H fan!"

"Alright then.. what's your excuse for being mean to Stephanie?"

"I don't know where you're getting this from." He said matter of factly, causing her to sigh. "I am the nicest guy you will ever meet."

"Well then Mr. Nice Guy, why don't you show Stephanie that?"

"Oh, I will. I'll impress her by showing her how nice I can be, and then, she'll be dying to be mine." He said smugly.

"Speak of the devil," She nudged him, "There she goes, 2 o'clock."

"Hold this for me." He handed Lita his water bottle and set off towards the brunette of his desires, determination in his stride and an arrogant smirk on his features. She was already his, he concluded.

She just didn't know it yet.

"Hey Steph!" He called out, causing her to look up from a list she was reading. He jogged over to where she was standing, away from the crowd, and extended his arms, ready to give her a hug.

She looked back down at her list, not seeing what he was trying to do. "What do you want now?" She said, not catching his brief look of disappointment. When she looked back up, his regular scowl was on his face.

"Oh, just to see what you were doing." He shrugged. "You know, about last night - "

"I don't have time to go out with you, if that's what you came for." She looked down at her list again, thinking that would be enough to deter him; however, she was finding out just how persistent he could be.

"You know, I was thinking about what you said to me.. and I think you're absolutely right." He said, causing her to look back up at him. Her look went from shock to curiosity and then to distrust, and so he elaborated: "I am very arrogant and I just wanted you to know, that I can be a nice guy."

"Is that right?" She stated more than asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm the nicest guy you'll ever meet." He said smugly.

"Well Jericho, we'll have to see about that." She snickered, making him frown. Why didn't anyone think he could be nice? "Tell you what. Since my night tonight is going to be extremely boring, how about you help me spice it up a little?"

His eyes flashed as he raised his eyebrow suggestively, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. She looked at him blankly for a few seconds, before busting out laughing.

"Not the way you're thinking, Chris Jericho." His face fell a little, making her laugh more. "Tell you what though. How about you put some money where your mouth is?"

"What are you proposing?" He asked curiously.

"Let's make a bet that you can't get through this day without being rude or mean to someone." She smirked as she tossed her hair behind her shoulders. She knew he wouldn't resist.

She knew him well.

A-ha, a challenge! he thought to himself, as he matched her smirk. This was going to be too easy.

"How much?"

"I don't know. How much are you willing to lose?" She sneered. He snickered and took a step closer to her. She held her ground as he leaned in until his mouth was right next to her ear.

"When I win, I get your cell number.. and a date." He whispered, the arrogance still strong in his tone. She felt a chill at his words, and decided that she needed distance between them.

She pushed him back firmly, making him grin. "And if I win?"

"What do you want?"

She thought about it, and then with a smirk that looked nothing short of evil to Chris, responded, "Next week on Raw, you do anything and _everything_ that I ask of you for the entire day."

He blinked as he thought about it. It was a dangerous risk all right, but one he was willing to take.

"Fine, if you win, I'll do whatever you want me to do for the whole day." He smirked. "Deal?"

"Deal." They shook hands.

"I'll be watching you. Better be nice, Jericho. You wouldn't want me to win, now would you?"

"Trust me babe, you won't."

* * *

**Later That Night..**

"I told you to _be_ nice, not to make a _bet_ about being nice!" She said, unable to hide the amusement from her voice.

He shrugged, deeming it wiser to keep his mouth shut, lest he say a rude remark and Stephanie hear him. Looking around, he saw her further down the hallway, standing with a group of technicians and appearing especially bored. As if she could feel his gaze, she looked up and they made eye contact. She gave him a knowing smirk, which he matched.

The pay-off to this bet was going to be sweet.

Lita watched him, amused and yet amazed that he had even made it this far. The show was already well under way, and not one rude comment had escaped the Canadian. They were once again taking their usual spot outside of her locker room.

"Hey Lita, your man's on TV!" She heard someone yell, and couldn't help but wince as she saw Kane on a monitor nearby about to have a match with Edge. She heard Chris give a low and menacing growl when he heard the comment, yet true to his word, he kept his mouth shut.

Before she knew it, he had wrapped an arm comfortingly around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. It was a natural and friendly gesture, but she wasn't expecting it. She waited for him to say something, but he didn't. She let the touch be for a few more moments before she pulled away from him.

He gave her a look, silently asking her where she was going, to which she promptly stated, "I'm going out there." She noted how he didn't look pleased, but he also didn't try to stop her. With that, she left him and went out for the match.

He frowned as he began to think about Kane and the big wedding crap, which neither him nor Lita wanted to bring up, when a tapping on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts. Turning to see a young man next to him wearing a headset, he sneered and went to make a rude remark when he caught Stephanie watching out of the corner of his eye.

She thinks she's outsmarting me by sending this loser to irritate me, he thought smugly as he smirked, pleased with himself that he was able to figure out her plan.

_Well, I'll show her._

"Sir, I don't mean to bother you --" The man started, trying hard not to stutter. Chris Jericho didn't have the best reputation, and he outweighed him by more than 100 pounds. Scared as he was, he was trying to keep it in check.

Chris interrupted him then, with an assuring smile. "It's no bother, junior." He said in a friendly tone, catching the young worker completely off guard. "I wasn't doing anything anyways. What do you need?"

"Oh.." The man's train of thought suddenly trailed off. Chris watched him, amused. "I just wanted to remind you that your match with Batista is coming up shortly."

Chris's smile slowly transformed itself into a scowl. The worker took this as a signal to leave, which he did as fast as he could without breaking into an actual run. Resisting the urge to sneer, Chris pushed himself off the wall and stalked over to the one person he knew would keep him entertained until his match was up.

This time though, she felt him coming. "Why are you wasting your time, Jericho? Your match is coming on any minute now."

"Oh Steph, you're never a waste of my time." She looked over her shoulder at him, curiosity in her features, a cheesy grin lacing his. She turned to fully face him, not understanding his new game that he was playing with her. Wasn't it just last week that he had been insulting her, and now he was hitting on her?

"I think you've taken too many hard shots to the head lately." She said, part of her serious. He just laughed.

"Don't worry, you're not gonna win this bet. I know how much you want to go out with me.." He said, teasingly.

Now it was her turn to laugh. "Get out of here, you with your gigantic ego."

"Wish me luck against Batista?"

"Hope you get your ass kicked." She smirked, purposely trying to rile him up so he would lose.

"Love you too." He smiled at her before pulling off his shirt (agonizingly slowly to Stephanie) and tossing it over to her. She rolled her eyes as she caught it.

"I ought to strangle the ego out of you with this."

He just laughed as he walked away, refusing to take her bait. If she wanted to get him to slip up, she was going to have to try much harder than that.

Stephanie watched him for a few moments before looking down at his shirt. She was about to find the nearest trash can to throw it out in, when an idea suddenly came to her.

She was going to make him regret ever agreeing to that bet.

* * *

He winced as he limped slowly backstage, leaning on the referee. His thoughts were a jumble as he thought about everything all at once. Needless to say, he was getting one hell of a headache. Not having seen the redhead approach him, he was slightly surprised to find that his arm was now over her shoulders instead of the refs.

"You okay, Chris?" She asked, not bothering to hide the concern in her voice. He nodded.

"Yeah, I've had worse. Stupid-ass Edge.." He mumbled under his breath. They hadn't gone more than five steps when Stephanie approached them.

"Jericho, you forgot your shirt." She stated, holding it up as if proving her point.

Both Stephanie and Lita were caught by surprise as Chris dropped on his knees at that instant, one hand clutching his back. He cried out in pain as he leaned forward, resting his forearm on the concrete. Stephanie snuck Lita a look before crouching next to him.

"Come on Chris," She said, tossing the shirt aside. "Don't die on me, I still need your services next Monday." With that, she grabbed him around his side and pulled him up until he was standing. He leaned on her, wincing. "We'll go get you checked out, all right?"

He nodded, biting his bottom lip in pain. As they were walking away, he snuck a look over at Lita and his look of pain disappeared as he smirked and winked at her. He then resumed the look of complete agony as Stephanie led him towards the trainer's room. Lita shook her head in disbelief. Sometimes he still managed to surprise her.

* * *

Chris looked around the trainer's room, bored as hell. Stephanie had left him there and gone off in search of the trainer. What kind of trainer left the trainer's room anyways? That moron was lucky Chris wasn't in real pain, or else there would be hell to pay. He grinned and deemed his performance worthy of an oscar.

_Maybe I should've been an actor instead._

He looked up as the door opened, expecting the trainer, or better yet, Stephanie, and instead got his arch-rival. He scowled at him.

"What do _you_ want?"

"Wow Chris, Dave really did a number on you, huh?"

"Yeah, what's it to you, Hunter? Shouldn't you be off celebrating with your boy-toy, Randy? I mean, isn't it just eating you up alive with jealousy to see that he could get the job done but you couldn't?" He smirked as Hunter frowned and straightened out his suit. "Now if you don't mind, I'm busy, and you're wasting my time."

"Chris, Chris, always with the razor-sharp tongue. Wasting your time from what? You're not even doing anything. Gosh Chris.. you're so _rude_ sometimes, you know that?"

"I so happen to agree." Stephanie said as she entered next to Triple H. Chris's mouth dropped slightly as he realized she had heard the exchange.

"I uh.." He started, but for the first time in a long time, couldn't think of what to say.

"Well Chris, you seem to be feeling better, no?" She asked, smirking, as Triple H snickered and walked out. Unbeknownst to Chris, she had slipped Hunter a 50 in his pocket before he left. She had known he was faking and making his injury look worse than it was. She knew him way better than he thought, and had hired the only person that could get him to snap from being Mr. Nice Guy. Fifty bucks was _more_ than worth it for winning this little bet.

"Looks like I win." She smiled innocently at him. "Better luck next time, Jericho.. and I expect you to be here four hours early next week."

He finally found his voice. "_Four hours?_" He cried out in disbelief.

"Better yet, make it five. I get here at that time, and since you're going to be at my every whim and call, then I suggest you get here at that time too. See you around, Chris." She smirked at him and walked out of the room.

He groaned and fell back. He should have never agreed to that bet.

He heard the door open as the trainer stepped inside.

"So Chris, what seems to be the prob -" Chris had gotten up and left the room, slamming the door behind him, leaving the trainer alone and confused. The Canadian angrily stalked back to Lita's locker room, the pain in his back having almost disappeared completely.

She looked up, startled as he barged in and began pacing back and forth in her room, mumbling curses under his breath.

"Chris?"

"I.." He sighed heavily and sat down gingerly on a chair in the room. "I _lost_." He said miserably.

"I told you you shouldn't have made that bet." She said knowingly.

"Damn it!" He growled. "She wants me here five hours early! Who in the hell is here five hours before the show starts?!"

"She is, apparently."

He cursed again under his breath, before brightening. "Well, something good came out of all this."

"That would be?"

"She called me Chris, and not Jericho." He said smugly. "I bet you she won't be able to resist me being so close to her all day next week. That's why she was hell-bent on me losing, because that's what she wanted. She's playing hard-ball with me." He smirked knowingly. "She may have won the bet, but I'm going to win at her little games."

"Well, next week is going to be pretty interesting." 


	3. Competition

Few times in his life had Chris Jericho taken a shot to his ego like this and not beaten the living hell out of the person responsible. His eyes went over the list for what had to have been the seventh time.

_Chris,_

I had to run, but don't worry, I'll be back in time for the show. In the meantime, this is what I want you to do for me. And it had all better be done by the time I get there, or I swear there will be hell to pay.. but if everything is done, then I have a reward waiting for you later tonight.

And no you perv, it's not what you're thinking.

Anyways, here's the list:

1. The Rock is going to be here tonight. Yes, I know you're not exactly jumping for joy, but he's asked for different flavored pies.. your guess is as good as mine here, but I told him I would take care of it. So get the pies. Shoot for maybe 10 different flavors.

2. Randy and Hunter. Don't let them get near each other before the show starts. I don't care what you do, or how you do it, just don't let them kill each other.

3. The wedding is tonight. We need flowers. The theme is white. Get on that.

4. I went shopping earlier today. I left my bags in my limo, which is still out in the parking lot. Bring all those bags in.

5. I'm running low on my hand lotion.. I'm sure you remember what kind I need, right? Fantastic! Get on that too.

6. Do not lose this list. Yes, I know, seems weird, but I don't care. Just don't lose it.

I'm sure you won't have any problems. You should have enough time.

See you later tonight,  
Steph

He sat on a chair in his locker room, his elbows on his knees, his chin resting in his hands as he gazed at the sheet of paper laying on the bench in front of him. Why did he have to agree to that stupid bet, he wondered, before sighing. He hated to follow the list, but he had to.

He also couldn't help but wonder what the reward in the end would be. Sighing again, he got up and snatched the list.

_The things I do for that woman._

* * *

Ten minutes later, he was cursing under his breath as he struggled to enter the arena again while carrying all of Stephanie's bags from her limo. He had figured that it would be the easiest thing to do and get out of the way, until he saw just how much shopping that woman had done. He was thoroughly convinced that she had deliberately gone on her little shopping spree so she could do this to him (he was actually right). His hands felt like they were about to fall off as he took one agonizing step after another.

He refused to believe that he didn't have the strength to carry a woman's shopping load in one shot, and his ego wouldn't let him take in a few bags at a time, so on he marched, holding some of the bags by the handles, and holding some against him with his arms.

Red-faced and slightly out of breath, he made it back to her locker room in one piece. After dropping all the bags on her floor, he smirked to himself as he pulled out her list and crossed off # 4. This was going to be too easy, he thought to himself smugly.

* * *

Four hours later, Chris Jericho looked proudly at the list, truly feeling a sense of accomplishment. He had bought The Rock's stupid pies without a sweat, all ten of them. He had even ordered the flowers for the wedding. He only hoped she would like them.

Hell, he had even bought her the hand lotion.

He was wondering if she was going to pay him back for all his troubles when a loud voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You know you ain't nothing without Evolution, boy! That belt only has one owner, whoo! And his name.. is Triple H! Whoo!"

"Yeah, well I'm the one holding the belt now aren't I?"

"You little punk, you listen here, you're lucky that H said to wait for him, otherwise me and Dave here would --"

"Do absolutely nothing." Chris interrupted, as he stepped up to the three men. Randy gave him a look of surprise, but the Canadian ignored him as he turned his attention to Ric Flair and Batista.

"This ain't about you, Jericho." Flair said warningly, while Batista glared at Chris, who just shrugged.

"You're right, it isn't. It's about the kid." He motioned to Randy. "He's got things to do, seeing as he's champion and all, and hanging around with you jackasses isn't going to help his reputation. So let's go Randy, you wouldn't want to be late, now would you?"

The young man looked at him, confused. "Late for what?"

Chris looked at him like he was stupid. "Late for your autograph signings, genius. I was sent to get you. Don't worry," He said, seeing the looks from Evolution, "You guys want a piece of him, the show is going to start in about an hour. I'm sure even you assclowns can wait."

"You just wait boy," Flair said, glaring at Randy, "You just wait til later tonight."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Let's go, junior." He said, as he walked away from Flair and Batista, Randy on his heels. As soon as Evolution was out of earshot, he turned and sneered at Randy.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked, his eyes narrowing angrily. Randy just looked at him, even more confused than he was earlier.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, earning a look of disgust from Chris.

"What were you doing talking to them? You eager to get your ass beat two weeks in a row, is that it?"

"But --"

"I just saved your ass kid. Don't fool yourself into thinking Triple H isn't around, cause the man is like a cockroach. He's everywhere you don't want him to be, and even if he's not around, you're a fool to think you can take on Flair and Batista by yourself."

Randy looked at Chris partly in disbelief, and partly in admiration. He quickly got a hold of himself and his cocky demeanor came back.

"I can take on anyone. I'm a legend killer." He said smugly.

"Yeah, and I'm Santa." Chris snickered. "You need to watch your back because, and I hate to be the one to break this to you kid, but you're on your own now. Evolution isn't there anymore to save you, and when you're a loner, you need to pick your fights wisely."

And with that, he spun around on his heel and walked back to his locker room, pleased that he had accomplished yet another one of Stephanie's objectives. He was so busy praising himself, that he didn't notice the folded piece of paper slip out of his pocket when he turned from Randy.

The young champion, however, did notice.

* * *

"Don't worry, I'm sure Matt's gonna go out there. He's not going to be able to stand it, trust me."

"I just don't want to go through this, Chris."

"I know.. but hey, things work out in the end." He said reassuringly. "Hey, I bought you something."

"What?" She said, finally turning to face him. He just smirked.

"Well, I heard it's gonna be a white wedding, and the whole theme is white and whatnot. But hey.. who says _everything_ has to be white?" He laughed when he saw her look.

"Chris.."

"I was out shopping earlier for the princess, so I picked you up a different outfit.. it's in your locker room, if you want to wear it."

She smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks. So.. how's it going with Steph?"

"It's going great, actually. I did everything she wanted me to do tonight. I don't care what Kane says, you're still going to help me, damn it."

She laughed, the first time that night. "I heard she got here a few minutes ago, you should go look for her."

"Excuse me then, my future girlfriend awaits."

* * *

He stood next to her, his arms crossed over his chest, his ever-present arrogant look on his face as he looked at the flowers that he had ordered for the wedding. Of course, Chris was busy checking her out out of the corner of his eye.

Nonchalantly, of course.

"Wow Chris.. you came through."

"For you Princess, anything." He said as charmingly as he could.

Stephanie smirked. "So, where's the list?"

"That was the easiest thing you put on there.." He snickered. "It's right.." He tried not to show any panic, but it wasn't in his pocket. He frowned a little as she looked at him.

"You do have it, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah.. oh, I forgot, I left it in my locker room." He made up on the spot, as he tried to remember just where in the hell he had last put the list.

She laughed out loud. "You lost it, didn't you?"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did. I can tell."

"Stephanie, I didn't lose the damn list. It said on the list not to lose the list!"

"But you lost it anyways! So you didn't follow the list, even though that's what the list said, cause you lost it altogether."

"I did _not_ lose it." He snarled. "I _misplaced_ it."

"You lost it."

"Oh my God Stephanie, I'm telling you, I didn't."

"You lost it."

"I'M TELLING YOU --"

"That you lost it."

"Yeah, I lost it." He mumbled, finally giving up.

"I think hell just froze over, because I could've sworn you just agreed with me." She said, laughing. "It's no big deal Chris, you lost it.. so what? You did everything else on the list, the more important things, so don't worry about it."

"Well, I'll tell you what I didn't lose."

"What's that?"

"This." He pulled out a small daisy out of his shirt pocket and handed it over to her.

She was genuinely shocked, and for once, no smart comment came to mind. Reaching out, she took the small flower from him.

"Thanks, Chris." She said, not knowing what else to say.

"Anytime.. I believe I was promised a reward for tonight?"

That brought Stephanie out of it. "Oh yeah, that's right.. you've got Edge tonight for the Intercontinental title. Now if you don't mind, I have to take care of some things which unfortunately, I can't make you do for me."

"Well, if you need anything else, you know where I'm at."

"If I need anything else, you're the first person I'll find." She said, surprised at how sweet he was being.

"Oh, and Steph?" She looked back up at him, where he was almost out the door. His smirk slowly crept back. "I do mean _anything_, baby." He winked at her.

"Get the hell out of here, Jericho."

* * *

_Score 1 for The King of the World, baby!_

Nothing could destroy his good mood, not even losing to stupid-ass Edge again. Well technically he did win, but he didn't consider it a win, especially not when Edge was still prancing around with his title belt. But he was making nice progress with Stephanie, and he was going to make her his, no matter what it took.

"Hey Chris!" He heard a familiar voice call out. He stopped his arrogant strut and frowned, trying to place the voice. He looked over his shoulder and saw a tall young man jogging over to him, a golden belt over one shoulder. He turned to face him as he gave him a curious look.

"What do you want now, junior?"

"You dropped this earlier." Randy said, handing Chris a piece of paper he knew all too well.

Chris's eyes flashed with anger when he saw the list that he had been arguing with Stephanie about not even five minutes ago. So much for his good mood, he thought bitterly. He didn't know if it was that Randy had waited to give the list back to him, or that he had read it, but he was now pissed. He growled and snatched the list out of his hand.

"You should've given this back as soon as you saw that I dropped it, kid." He said in a low and dangerous voice. Randy didn't catch it though, and just shrugged.

"So what's going on between you and Stephanie? Does she always give you lists like that or what?"

Chris snorted, and decided that the young man in front of him was not worth his time. Turning around, he started to walk away, only to hear the champ's footsteps behind him.

"I mean, I'm sorry I didn't give it back sooner, I should've, but I was just curious. I thought you two didn't even talk any --"

Chris turned and glared at Randy, cutting him off. "This is none of your business, Orton, so shut the hell up and stay out of it."

"Out of what?" He said, earning another "did your mother drop you on your head?" look from Chris. Realization suddenly dawned upon the new champion as he smirked. "Ohhh.. I get it.. you like her, don't you?"

Chris blinked, and then scowled at Randy, before turning and walking away again. Randy snickered, having caught the light blush that rushed to the Canadian's face at his accusation.

"Chris, come on, wait up."

"Fine!" Chris nearly shouted, as he stopped walking. "Fine. Yes, I do like her. Why?" He turned to face Randy again. "Do you?"

"Well she is beautiful.. but no. I always figured you had a thing for her though."

"So people tell me." Chris mumbled.

"So what's going on? You ask her out or what, man?" Randy asked, curiosity getting the better of him. He couldn't help it.

Chris didn't feel like telling him about her blatant rejection of his proposal to go out with him, so he just scowled and shook his head. Randy's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You should ask her out!"

Chris frowned at him. "Don't you have more important things to do, kid? I could've sworn I heard Trips calling you out about a minute ago."

At that, Randy frowned. "Yeah, I guess I should go out there." He turned and walked away, disappointed. He didn't have any friends left after his less-than-graceful leave from Evolution, and he sighed as he realized that Chris was right. He was now a loner and had to look out for himself.

"Hey Orton!" Chris called out after him. Randy looked at him over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. Chris scowled at him. "You better not give Triple H that belt back, or I'll kick your ass myself."

Randy smirked a little. "Alright, I won't."

* * *

"So, how did Lita get that black dress?"

"I love how you just assume that I know."

"Oh, I know that you know. Hence me asking."

He just laughed as he walked with her out into the parking lot, carrying her bags in his hand. They got to her limo and he opened the trunk, throwing her bags inside.

"All done." He smirked, catching her glare. "If you must know, it was me that gave her the dress. Satisfied?"

"Hmph." She went to open the door, but he beat her to it. She gave him a look. "Chris, the night's over. You don't have to keep doing everything for me."

"I know, but hey, I'm a nice guy, remember?" He winked at her and she shook her head. "So Stephanie.. whatcha doing next week after the show?"

"Why?" She asked, not catching his tone as she looked at her watch. She looked up, surprised, when he started leaning towards her.

"Oh, you know.. I was thinking maybe we could.." He raised an eyebrow suggestively. "You know, catch a movie or something." He shrugged.

"Chris.." She started uncomfortably.

"Hey, maybe that's too fast. How about some dinner and we can just talk?" She sighed, and so he kept going. "Lunch maybe?" He said, trying not to sound too pleading.

_Something?_

"Chris.. I'm flattered, but I'm seeing someone right now."

".. Oh."

_Ouch._

"Yeah.. we've been going out for a few months now."

He nodded, using every bit of self-discipline he had to maintain his cool, ignoring the huge disappointment he was feeling inside. "Well.. that's good. That's great. That's.. really good to hear."

"I'm glad we got that out before anyone got hurt."

"Right, I agree. Well then.. you should bring him by next week so we can meet him." The words tumbled out of his mouth, even though his mind was screaming at him to shut up.

She smiled a little. "Yeah, maybe I'll do that."

"What's his name?" He asked before he could stop himself.

"Al."

"Al?"

"Yes.. Al."

".. Al?" _She's choosing a guy named Al over me?_ He thought in disbelief.

She frowned a little. "Yes, Chris, that's his name. If you don't mind, I have to go. Sorry you lost your match, better luck next time."

"Yeah.." He said absent-mindedly, still thinking about the name of her boyfriend. He sounded like a loser.

"See you next week?" Stephanie said, snapping him out of it. He nodded and smirked.

"Always, princess."

She matched his smirk and got into the limo, and then, she was gone. He stood and watched as the limo disappeared, and then stayed for a while even after it was gone. He didn't even feel the young man approach him from behind.

"So, did you ask her?" A voice asked, startling Chris. He turned around to see a curious young champion standing behind him.

"You should watch who you sneak up on, kid." Chris said, scowling.

"I take that as a no." Randy said knowingly.

"She has a boyfriend." Chris stated, his scowl growing. "And his name is _Al._"

"What does his name have to do with it?"

"_Al_.. What kind of name is that? That has got to be the lamest name I've ever heard."

"You saying Al Capone had a lame name?"

"That, my young ignorant friend, was short for Alfonse or something like that." With that, Chris started off back towards the arena, Randy once again following him. "I can't believe she's going out with some moron named.. _Al._"

"Ah you're just jealous that she's taken." Randy said, laughing; he stopped cold when he saw the look of death that Chris gave him, not wanting to lose the only person even close to a friend that he had. "Sorry." He mumbled. "So now what?"

"What do you mean now what?" Chris snarled. "She's taken; what the hell do you want me to do? Beat the crap out of her boyfriend?" He paused. "Actually.." He started, smirking.

"I think you should still go after her."

The Canadian stopped walking and stared at his young friend. So young and naiive, so arrogant, so.. so much like him, he suddenly realized. He looked at Randy curiously.

"What are you proposing, kid?"

Randy shrugged, before smirking.

"A little competition never hurt anybody." 


	4. Batman & Robin

Sorry about this chapter being up so late... I had no internet access last week .. I was a deprived individual, but I'm back.. whoo? :P

I own nothing.. and I just wanted to thank all of the people who reviewed my last chapter.  
.. you guys had me cracking up with some of those reviews.. XD ( I was tempted to use Al Snow.. I really.. REALLY was. XD )

So here's hoping you guys enjoy.. and since I'm starting school on Tuesday, the next chapter will probably take a few days to be written.. Just giving a heads up. :P

* * *

In a wrestling arena on a lone Monday night, staff workers scurried along the halls, Eric Bischoff went about firing people, Triple H was intimidating a poor, new rookie, while other wrestlers were getting into fights about which locker room was theirs. Next to the arena entrance, two men sat next to each other, each on a steel folding chair, and each holding a newspaper high enough to cover both of their faces. They were in "disguise", as the older of the two had put it - yet how one couldn't guess that the sparkly ring tights belonged to one Chris Jericho, Randy didn't dare to mention. 

All in all, it seemed to be just another regular Monday night, Randy concluded, as he and Chris whispered secretively to each other behind their newspapers.

"So you go up to her, turn on some charm, and she melts in your arms and agrees to dump that Al guy for you, and you two run off and live happily ever after.. madly in love for years to come.."

"That doesn't sound like a nightmare to me."  
  
"You know Rundo, sometimes your stupidity amazes me. It was OBVIOUSLY a nightmare!" Chris scoffed. "You and Stephanie.. _please_.."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Randy asked indignantly. "And since when am I Rundo?"

"Shh, I think that's her." Chris hissed, and they both once again raised their newspapers. Randy snuck a peek beside his newspaper, only to see Mae Young walk in.

"Is it her?" Chris asked, while he held the newspaper three inches away from his face.  
  
"Nope.. but it's your old love interest."  
  
"Trish." The Canadian instinctively stated, lowering his newspaper, only to see Mae Young glancing in his direction. A look of horror crossed his face and he immediately raised his newspaper again.

"Isn't she the next best thing?" Randy asked, laughing. Chris sneered at him.  
  
"You're not funny, Rundo."  
  
"Aww man, and here I was hoping I was." He said in a mock hurt tone, which made Chris snicker. "Oh, there goes Lita. She's not with Kane.. I guess that means you can go talk to --" He was rudely interrupted when Chris practically smacked him in the face with his newspaper as he got up and headed over to the redhead.

"Jackass!" Randy cried out after him. Chris heard him, of course, but paid him no mind.

_Payback for the stupid Mae Young comment._

"Hey Lita, wait up!" He called out, making her turn to face him. "Geez, walking so fast.. Kane's not around, is he?" He said when he caught up to her. She snickered.

"No.. he's off, who knows where."

"Well," The Canadian said smugly, "It wouldn't matter, because I'll beat his ass like I used to do back in the day." Lita sighed heavily, making him frown. "What's the matter?" He asked, as they started walking together down the hallways.

"Eric Bischoff's giving Kane the opportunity to face whoever he wants at Unforgiven.. it's a _wedding_ gift." She sneered in disgust. "And he's probably going to put Matt's name on there.. or maybe he'll be a coward and put someone else's name."  
  
"So it's like an open contract? Well, I would take the spot babe, but I want Edge that night.. otherwise it'd be on."  
  
"Yes.. you tell yourself that, Chris."

"But seriously.. you should just write someone's name on there."

"Yeah? Like who's? Matt's not going to be ready in time."  
  
"Kane's put other people on the shelf besides Matt.."

She smirked as she realized what he was getting at. "Well.. enough about that.. what's the story with Stephanie? Have you unleashed your super fool-proof ultimate plan on her yet?"

"No.. not yet. I told you, I can't unleash that too soon." He paused, scowling. "She has a boyfriend." He mumbled.

"Ouch."  
  
"Yeah, that's putting it mildly." He said sarcastically. "And his name is _Al._"  
  
"What does his name have to do with it?" She asked, confused.  
  
Chris growled in frustration. "Why must everyone ask me that? First Rundo, and now you. The name has _everything _to do with it!"  
  
"Rundo?"  
  
"Rundo."  
  
"... Rundo? Who the hell is Rundo?"  
  
"The champion! Have you not been keeping up or something?" Chris demanded angrily, while Lita burst out laughing.

"Rundo.. sounds like a laundry detergent."  
  
He was about to respond when he spotted a familiar person walking around the corner of one of the hallways. The sight made him stop walking and lose his train of thought altogether. Lita stopped next to him, looking at him curiously, before following his line of sight to an all-too-familiar person that her friend was always obsessing over.

Only this time, the young Stephanie McMahon was not alone.

The sight was nothing short of sickening to Chris Jericho. It at the very least put to rest to small yet nagging fear he had carried the entire week that she was going out with the idiotic Al _Snow. _After all.. she hadn't specified which _Al. _

He sneered involuntarily as he studied the man holding Stephanie's hand who had to have been the famous _Al. _He sure didn't look like an Al, he concluded, giving the man a once over. He had a decent build, was probably an inch or two (at the most) taller than Chris, had short but very McMahon-looking brown hair. He was indeed a good looking man, clad in a tux that Vince himself probably wore at one time.

"Wow." Was all Lita could muster. "He's pretty handsome."

"He's not a bad looking guy," Chris shrugged, before his arrogant smirk crept on his face, "But he's got _nothing _on me. Excuse me Li, but I should go introduce myself."

* * *

"I'm just kind of low-key right now, you know.. trying to work back up to where I once was. That's basically the arrangement I had with my dad." Stephanie explained, as her boyfriend took in the surroundings. He was about to comment when a voice cut in from behind them. 

"And you have always been one for arrangements, haven't you, Stephy baby?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes at Al before turning to face the Canadian that never seemed to stop smirking. This time, however, she was rewarded with a charming smile, before he extended his arms out to her.  
  
"Can I get a hug?"

"Chris -"  
  
"Pleeeaaase." He said, his smile turning to a pout as he completely ignored the man standing next to her. She sighed and did the only thing she could to get Chris to stop - giving him what he wanted. She stepped to him and wrapped her arms around him, not expecting the tight hug she got in return. He leaned back, picking her feet off the floor.

"Chris!" She clung tighter to him, making him laugh and put her back down as he let her go.

"That felt nice. I need more of those."

She was about to say something when they both heard the man next to them loudly clear his throat. Chris turned and made eye contact with him for the first time. He raised an eyebrow curiously, his blue eyes meeting the man's green eyes. Stephanie saw this and took the initiative.

"Chris, this is my boyfriend Al.. Al, this is Chris Jericho, a highly annoying friend of mine."  
  
"Nice to meet you.. _Al._" Chris said, forcing the name out as he stuck his hand out for him to shake. Al readily took his hand and shook it in a firm grip.

"Nice to meet you too.. _Chris._" The Canadian ignored the friendly tone and almost smirked at the look of distrust in the man's eyes. Chris tightened his grip on Al's hand as they continued shaking.

Stephanie cleared her throat, and they both let go. She gave Chris a warning look, to which he answered with a shrug.

"So, how did you two meet?" Al asked. "You know.. just out of curiosity."

"We hated each other." They both answered at the same time. They exchanged amused looks, before Stephanie continued. "We have a lot of history."

"I've heard a lot about you." Al informed Chris, earning a curious and suspicious look from the Canadian. "I'm good friends with Christian.. known him for ages."

"Really? So have I, and I have never heard about you." Chris said mockingly. "Are you two.. _really _good friends? You know.."  
  
"No!" Al said indignantly, looking at him in disgust. Again, Chris just shrugged. Al turned back to Stephanie and put an arm around her shoulders. "Anyways, it's been nice meeting and talking to you Chris."

"Likewise." Chris said, looking at Stephanie and smirking at her. "Whatcha got for me tonight, baby? Match, show, what?"

"Match for Heat.." At this, Al snickered. Chris looked at him, envisioning himself dragging Al by the stupid McMahon-do through barbed wire. That thought made him smile. ".. And you've got Edge on the highlight reel."

"Thank you darling, you always keep me posted. I'll see you later?" He asked, and she gave him a small smile.

"Always."

* * *

"The guy's a total loser. TOTAL.. and complete.. loser. She can't be going out with a _loser.._" 

"Chris, you've been harping on this Al guy for almost an hour. She's just going out with him.. she's not married to him or anything."

"Ah Rundo.." Chris sighed. "To top it all off.. he's friends with Christian! I'm glad that loser is out.. I can't believe I ever hung out with him."

"I guess we both have had bad luck with friends." Randy said, frowning. "I didn't exactly pick the best guys to hang out with either." He mumbled, anger underlaying his words.

"Well, that was your dumbass fault." Randy scowled, still getting used to Chris and his sometimes blunt, and sometimes razor-sharp tongue. He had concluded that it depended on his mood. "You can't trust Triple H, kid. You should have figured that one out.. he only has two friends in his life."  
  
"Batista and Flair, I know."

"No Rundo.. the title, and the sledgehammer." He shrugged, before crossing his arms over his chest. "You have one.. you should get the other."

"A sledgehammer?"

"Everyone needs a friend."

* * *

Only one name entered Chris Jericho's mind as he got his ass handed to him by his former best friend and tag team partner. Never mind the fact that he had put Christian out of action in the cage match they had had, oh so long ago.. or so it seemed to Chris. And never mind the fact that they had turned into bitter enemies after the whole ordeal with _Trash Stratus. _He also chose to ignore the fact that Christian was Edge's brother, Edge, the man that Chris wasn't the best of friends with either. 

All of that completely forgotten, the last thought that ran through his mind before Christian nailed him with his own chair (besides cursing his ex-best friend for ruining such a freakin' expensive chair) was that come hell or high water, _he was going to get Al back for this._

* * *

"I'm TELLING you Stephanie!" Chris snarled angrily, as he held an ice pack to his forehead and leaned gingerly back on her sofa. "He's an_ asshole_! He _deliberately _made Christian go out there to attack me! Where the hell is he? I will _kick that son of - _" 

"Chris! Relax!" Stephanie exclaimed, putting a second ice pack on his forehead. He scowled at her. "You're jumping to conclusions. Just because they're friends, does _not _mean that Al sent Christian out on a mission to assault you."  
  
He scoffed. "Whatever.. he's probably out congratulating the creepy little bastard as we speak." He spat out bitterly. "Thinks he can just.. waltz in here.. jump me whenever he feels like it.. stupid.. just wait.." He mumbled, closing his eyes as he adjusted the ice packs.

"You sure you're okay? You don't have a concussion, do you?" He grinned a little, catching the hint of concern in her voice, and shook his head.

"No.. I'll live."

"Hey, I forgot to ask.. since when are you friends with Randy Orton?"

"Rundo! I don't know. For like a week, if you want to call him a friend."  
  
"What would you call him?"  
  
"My lackey. I'm Batman, he's Robin. He helps."  
  
"So he's your friend."  
  
"I guess. How'd you know anyways?"

"No reason, just seen you two talking more, that's all." She shrugged, before taking a seat next to him. He leaned against her when she did, resting his head on her shoulder. "Chris!" She whined. "I sat down for a break, not to be your cushion!"

"I'm an injured man, woman! Don't you have any compassion?" He said, his voice mumbled as he spoke through the ice pack. His cell phone went off for what had to have been the eighth time. He sighed but otherwise didn't move.

"Well?" She asked, annoyed.

"Well? Well what?" He asked, equally annoyed.

"Are you going to get off?"

"No."

"Are you going to answer that?"

"No."

"Why are you so unreasonable?"  
  
"Cause."

"You are the most immature.. self-centered.. arrogant.. bastard I have ever met, you know that?" She said in disgust.

"You ran out of good insults, huh?" He said, amused.

"No I didn't!"

"That's okay baby, you can't hang in the verbal battles with me. I've proved that one time and time again."

"You are just impossible." She said, giving up. He laughed and straightened, pulling out his cell phone to look at the number. She snuck him a look, curiosity getting the better of her. "Who's that?"  
  
"Rundo. Wants me to let him back in."

The door opened then, and in walked Chris Jericho's biggest nemisis.. _Al. _Both Al and Chris sneered at the sight of each other, prompting Stephanie to stand up, lest the two get into it right in front of her.

"What's this?" Al said in a calm voice, as Stephanie approached him.

"Oh, we were just talking. No big deal." She said, shrugging. Chris snorted behind her and leaned back on the sofa, wincing. He was starting to feel the after effects of that belt all right.

"Ohhh.. I saw what happened out there, Chris. Tough break."

"You know.. _Al.. _I know that you set that thing up with Christian. Nice move, but alas, it's not gonna work junior."  
  
Al looked at him then, confused. "You think that was my fault?" He asked in disbelief.

"He's just upset." Stephanie cut in. "Don't mind him." She added, shooting Chris a "look" that translated into "Shut the hell up already or I will make you regret it later." Of course, Chris had to say something after getting the "look" - but before he got the chance, his cell went off again.

_That Rundo is sure as hell persistent._

"Chris?" Stephanie asked, making him look back up. His eyes went to Al's arm, which was now wrapped casually around her waist. He scowled and met her eyes again. "You gonna let him in or what?"

"Yeah yeah, I always have to save rookies' necks." He tossed the ice packs aside and stood up, before walking over to her. She thought he was going to ask for another one of his hugs, but he once again surprised her.

Completely ignoring the man next to her, he leaned in and for a second, she thought he really did have a concussion and was about to kiss her on the lips right in front of her boyfriend. Instead, he gave her a small, almost teasing kiss on the cheek.

"If you ever need a real man.." He whispered so low in her ear, she almost didn't hear him. Key word was almost. She smirked and shoved him away, much to Al's pleasure. The taller man tightened his grip around Stephanie, not hiding the severe dislike he now had of the Canadian in front of him.

"Go chase Robin, Batman."

"Yes, my love." He said teasingly, before looking back at Al. He noticed that the vibe he was now getting from Stephanie's boyfriend had turned very negative from the time when they first met. For some reason, that made him even more amused. "Til next time.. _Al._"

"Til next time.. _Chris._"

* * *

"You know kid.. you make a poor excuse for Robin." Chris said into his phone, looking out the window at a young and scowling champion. 

"I've been calling for like an hour!" Randy snarled.

"I've been busy junior! My world doesn't revolve around you and getting you out of your problems. Yet I guess that's all Robin's good for. Go around the left, there's a door there, Rundo." He hung up, then walked off quietly towards the door that wasn't guarded by security guards. A few seconds later, Randy was back in.

"Finally." He mumbled.

"Oh get off the high horse, Robin." Chris said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Robin?"  
  
"I'm Batman, you're Robin. Don't question me, junior." Randy rolled his eyes, but Chris kept going. "That Al guy is getting on my nerves."  
  
"I've noticed. You've made it real obvious." Randy said sarcastically, but of course, he was ignored.

"Next week, we're going to have to launch a new operation."

"Whoa, I don't want to get involved! I have other things going on besides helping .. oh fine." He said, seeing the look Chris gave him. "I don't have much else going on besides this crap with Evolution."  
  
"Exactly. Now that I have met and interacted with the enemy.." Chris said, clasping his hands and rubbing them together. "There _is _no competition.. we're going to break them apart. Operation Break Up."  
  
"Original stuff."  
  
"Shut it, Robin! We have to strategize. Once he's out of the way, she'll run right into my arms." The Canadian's blue eyes sparkled mischieviously. "It's fool-proof."

"I thought you already had a fool-proof plan."  
  
"I do! But that is the _ultimate _plan.. this is the next best thing.. AND DIDN'T I SAY NOT TO QUESTION ME?!" He shouted, glaring at the young champion.

"Sorry, sorry, geez." Randy said, raising his arms. "Fine, we'll work on it next week."

"Yes.. she's going to be mine.. I can feel it, and it's gonna be sweet.." Chris said as they started to walk back in together. Randy suddenly scowled.

"Hey, why do I have to be Robin?"

"Batman's better looking."

"Yeah, well he's also taller."

"Are you saying I'm short?"  
  
"Maybe."

"Don't push it, Rundo."


	5. Slowly But Surely

Randy frowned at the sight before him. Adjusting his championship belt over one shoulder, he approached the couple, with an arrogant strut that just couldn't be matched - except for maybe a certain Canadian. In any case, he knew what his job was, and had to admit it was more fun planning and scheming with Chris than it ever had been with Evolution. With them it was always about the championship - and he had that already, he thought smugly to himself.

Stephanie was laughing at something Al said when she caught sight of Randy. She tilted her head curiously at him, as Al wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Hey Randy, what can I do for you?" She asked politely.

"Am I interrupting something here?" He asked, glancing at Al and raising an eyebrow.

"No no, not at all. Randy, this is my boyfriend Al. Al, this is our champion, Randy Orton." She said, Al letting her go to shake Randy's hand.

"Congratulations at being champion." The man said, as Randy gave him a once-over. There was something about him, but he took an immediate dislike to Stephanie's boyfriend. He finally saw what Chris had been going on and on about - there was something about him indeed, but he couldn't place his finger exactly on it.

He nodded, smirking a little. "The perks I get nowadays are great."

"I can only imagine."

"I could show you, if you want. Here, check it out." With that, he removed the heavy piece of gold from his shoulder and handed it over to him. Al took it slowly, a look of surprise crossing his face at the weight of it.

"Wow, this is nice." Al said, almost mesmerized by the gold staring back at him.

"Isn't it?" Randy said, amused. He then turned to Stephanie. "I just wanted to ask who Triple H was facing tonight?"

"Eugene in a cage match."

He winced inwardly, feeling bad for Eugene. "Thanks." He said, before turning back to Al, who was still admiring his belt. "You sure you don't want to hang out with the champ for a while?" He asked again.

"No.. it's okay."

"Oh come on." Randy said, grinning. "It'll be fun. Give you a different perspective of the place from a champion's point of view, no offense to you, Steph."

"None taken." She said, chuckling. "Why don't you go with him, Al?" She suggested, missing the glint in Randy's eyes at her words. "The show's not going to start for a while.. and I'm not going anywhere. You can hang out with the world champion."

"Yeah, come on." Randy said, throwing an arm around Al's shoulders in a friendly gesture. "Hell, I'll even let you carry the belt."

"Alright." Al said, finally agreeing, making Randy smirk.

"Don't worry Steph, we won't be long." Randy winked at her before the two walked away, chatting about the ins and outs of the business. Stephanie watched them for a brief moment before retreating back to her own dressing room. She figured she might as well take care of some business now that Al was with Randy. Her father had finally given her a desk in her own dressing room.

She was moving back up, slowly but surely.

She entered her dressing room, and soon caught the sight of a bouquet of roses sitting on her desk in a vase. Noting that they weren't there before and assuming they were from Al, she grinned and approached the desk to look at them more closely. Her eyes on the vase, she was more than startled when her reclining leather chair behind the desk spun around to face her.

"Jesus Christ!" She cried out, meeting the blue eyes of an amused Canadian. "What the hell are you doing here, Chris?"

"Well that's not much of a greeting now is it?" He said in a low voice, though there was a tint of amusement in it. He stood up then, and she gave him a once over. He had his blonde hair tied back (leaving a few strands loose - he did indeed know what she liked), and was wearing a simple white t-shirt, she noted, as he walked around the desk. He smirked, noticing her checking him out (a boost to his ego, to say the least). "So where's the boyfriend at?"

"He left with Randy.. _Randy._" She said, finally putting two and two together. "You told Randy to take Al around, didn't you?" She said accusingly, glaring at him. He laughed out loud, reaching out then to grab one of the roses, pulling it out of the vase.

"We may be friends, but it is a free country.. I haven't spoken to Rundo in days." He said, twirling the rose in his hand.

"You never answered my question."

"Which was?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I can't come and see a pretty girl like yourself?" At this, he handed her the rose. "The flowers are from me. An apology for all those insults I sent your way over the years."

She gazed at him in wonder, or maybe it was amazement, he thought to himself. He hated apologizing to anyone, it was almost a pet peeve, but he knew when he had no other choice.

"Thanks, Chris." She said, at a loss for words as she took the rose from him. He stepped closer to her, leaning against the desk.

"Not a problem." He said charmingly, smiling at her. She smiled back, before deeming that they were a tad bit too close. She walked back around the desk to take a seat where he had been sitting.

Something about him being charming was slightly unnerving. She knew how to deal with the asshole Chris Jericho, but the charmer Chris Jericho was throwing her for a loop.

He took a seat on the edge of the desk, prompting her to once again give him a once-over. Her eyes went down to his jeans, that fit him perfectly.. She looked back up at him, meeting his once-again amused eyes, and blushed madly.

"Chris, I have work I have to do." She said, embarrassed as she avoiding his gaze as she looked down at the paperwork in front of her.

"I'm not doing anything." He said, shrugging. "I love a woman who knows what she's doing."

Realizing he wasn't about to go anywhere, and wishing for Al to hurry up and come back, she proceeded to ignore him as she read over a contract in front of her. He smirked, knowing exactly where Rundo and Stephanie's loser of a boyfriend were.

* * *

"Basically, when you're at the top, you get whatever you want. Whatever locker room you want, first-class flights.. the best suites at the top hotels in the country.. and most of all, you get all the girls." Randy smirked. "I should know." 

"Man, you're basically on top of the world." Al said in amazement.

Images of Triple H wielding a sledgehammer suddenly flashing through the young man's mind, he strained a smile, "Yeah, something like that. Check it out."

With that, they both stopped in front of a locker room.

"What's in there?" Al asked, suddenly not trusting the young man next to him. Randy grinned.

"Let's go in so you can find out for yourself." The young champion then pushed the door open and stalked inside, Al on his heels. A few seconds later, he was watching in amazement as the last four girls in the diva contestant search were all over Randy. If there was one thing he had picked up from Evolution, it was how to party.

"Hi Randy." Joy said suggestively, making the champion send a knowing smirk in Al's direction.

"Al, allow me to introduce Joy, Amy, Carmella.. and of course, Christy." All the girls (except for Christy, who was busy flirting with Randy), then turned to Al.

"I should go." He said, suddenly realizing that him hanging out with Randy might cause serious consequences with Stephanie. Randy laughed, knowing exactly what the man was thinking.

"She won't know.. trust me." Randy said arrogantly, before Christy whispered something to him in his ear. He smirked and nodded, and she went over to her bag, pulling out a bottle.

"Champagne anyone?" She asked. Randy snuck a look over at Al, who was smirking as Carmella gave a twirl for him.

Al wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

She couldn't concentrate. Not when he was leaning over on her desk, resting on his side as he watched everything she wrote. He hadn't said a word, and somehow that was more frustrating to her than when he was going on about something. 

"Do you mind?" She asked, finally breaking the silence. He looked up at her then, hearing the annoyance in her voice.

"You have beautiful handwriting." He said, looking back down at the notes she was taking on the show. "Fitting."

She smiled, touched by the compliment. "Can I ask you something?"

"That depends."

"Did you really hate me?"

"Yes."

"Well that was a fast answer."

"You were always fun to mess with though. I couldn't resist."

"Yeah, and you still can't." She said teasingly.

"You hit it right on the head, Princess." He said, as they once again fell into a silence. She worked while he looked on, only this time, it was a much more comfortable silence for both of them.

* * *

Randy closed the door as he left the locker room, deciding he needed a break. He went and took a stroll around, having his title belt once again on his shoulder. He didn't trust that Al guy enough to actually _leave _his championship belt with him. He might come back to find it melted or something. 

"... always around Chris Jericho! Don't you see... "

At the sound of his companion's name, Randy froze, recognizing the voice. He realized who's locker room he had been walking by, and leaned up close to the wall. He removed his belt from over his shoulder and rubbed at it, making it look like he was actually shining it up when he was really eavesdropping.

Yet another thing he had picked up from Evolution.

"He's such.. such an asshole! Anyone can see that from just watching him prance around.. ugh, I can't _stand _him! But _her.. _she's trying to move on him, it is _so _obvious!"

Randy raised an eyebrow at this. _Her? Who's 'her' ? Stephanie? _

"Trish," Someone said, who Randy figured must have been Tomko. "I don't think she's an actual reason for you to get jealous --"

"_I am not jealous!" _She shrieked, making Randy wince. "How dare you suggest that I would be jealous of _Lita!" _

"She might not even like Jericho." Tomko reasoned.

"Yeah, and why are you getting defensive with her anyways? You're not seeing him anymore, so who cares who he goes after next?" Another voice asked, who Randy recognized as Christian's.

"I swear, sometimes I think you two are _so _dense.."

At this, Randy left, lest one of them come out and find him there. Pulling out his cell, he sent a text message to a familiar number.

* * *

"I hope Rundo doesn't lose track of the time." Chris said, not having moved from his spot on her desk. Stephanie had gotten used to it though, and now it felt comfortable. She snickered. 

"Rundo.." She shook her head, and added her signature to the last paper, before putting it aside and leaning back. "_Finally.._"

"Finally is right.. the show's gonna start in like twenty minutes."

"No one told you to join me." She responded sarcastically.

"You should be honored that I have graced you with my larger than life presence."

"Have graced? Does that mean you're leaving?" She asked hopefully, making him laugh.

"Wow, that kind of stung, Steph."

"Did it? Aw, I'm sorry."  
  
"Yeah, you should be." He got up and stretched out for a bit, before turning back to face her. "So how come we can't go out to lunch sometime? As friends. Friends go out to lunch sometimes. Unless, that is, we're not friends."

"Now you sound like Kurt." She said, rolling her eyes as he started to walk around her desk. "Yes, somehow you have managed to make it so I can regard you as a friend."

"You make it sound like a bad thing." He said, now standing in front of her. He turned her chair slightly so she was facing him, and leaned towards her. "So.. about lunch?"

"Chris.." She said, her voice faltering as he leaned closer. "It just wouldn't be.."  
  
"Wouldn't be what?" He cut in, lowering his eyes to her lips. The lips that had nothing but venomous words for him before. Of course he knew what they tasted like, but that was so long ago..

"Somehow wouldn't be quite appropriate.." She mumbled, her heart feeling like it was in overdrive. She blamed her total inability to get out of this situation on the scent of his cologne..

And just then, someone from above felt like ending her torture as his phone vibrated on her desk. She used this as an excuse to turn away from him and grab it, while he growled, having been so close to making his move. She pressed a key on the phone, looked at it, then handed it to him.

"Randy sent you a text message."

_Damn that kid, I told him to wait until I left. _He took the phone from her and read the message.

"What the hell?" He mumbled to himself, gazing at the short message in shock. He straightened and re-read the message again, and then cursed under his breath, not noticing Stephanie sigh in relief at the distance he created.

"Something wrong?" She asked, partly relieved, and partly curious.

"No.. I have to go though. I'll be back later." He gave her a suggestive look before walking over to the door. "Oh, and think about lunch."

"Whatever, Chris." She said as he left. She let out a deep breath she didn't know she had been holding, and turned on the TV to wait for the show to start, Al completely forgotten for the moment. She was too busy thinking about how good Chris had looked in those jeans.

* * *

"This was _not _part of the plan." Chris snarled as he angrily pulled off his t-shirt. He threw it aside and snatched his other shirt he was going to wear for the night. "No wonder Trish has been treating Lita like shit. She's jealous of us. Man, she's always getting into my business, thinks she can just waltz back and have the nerve to talk to Lita like she's been doing, like she has the right.." He stopped his angry tirade as he stared at Randy. 

"What?" Randy asked.

"Wait, shh, shut up." Chris said, on the verge of a realization. "Do you realize what this means?"

"Actually --"

"Didn't I say to shut up?!" The Canadian growled, making Randy frown. "She still wants me." He said in awe.

"Who?"  
  
"Trish.. she still wants me. Oh man." Chris said, running his hand through his hair.  
  
"This is bad?"

"Are you kidding me? This is _great!_ Only thing is, Lita's having to deal with her.. we'll have to think of something to take care of that."

"Yeah.. but how'd it go with Steph--"

"Shhh, shhh.. you hear that?" Chris asked, and Randy strained his hearing. He looked at the older man like he was insane.

"No."

"That sounds like Christian's music! He thinks I forgot about last week.. Y2J _never.. EVER _forgets!"

"That was kind of lame --" The door shutting cut Randy off as Chris took off towards the gorilla position. He sighed and took a seat in the Canadian's locker room, and decided he might as well check up on the show.

* * *

"A _ladder _match? Are you crazy?" 

"Are you stupid?"

"No."

"Then don't question me. I've been in more ladder matches than you've had title shots so shut it, Rundo."

"Is this the thanks I get?"

"What should I thank you for?" Chris demanded, stopping in his tracks and staring at the champion. "Enlighten me."

"For getting Al out of the way so you could work your _moves _on Stephanie, as you put it."

"And then for text messaging me right when I was about to capitalize on my moves?"

"Don't be asking me for help then next time, you jackass." Randy said angrily, turning around and walking away. He had just about had it with that man.

Chris watched him walk away and scowled. Was he sorry? Yes. Was he about to go and tell Randy that? Hell no. He snorted and went to walk away himself, when someone familiar called out to him.

"Jericho!" He turned to see his arch nemesis jog up to him. His scowl deepened.

"What do you want, assclown?"

"Where's Stephanie?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"I know you know." Al said, his fists clenched angrily. Chris noticed this and smirked.

"What are you gonna do? Hit me? I dare you to." He stuck his chin out and pointed. "Free shot, junior."

"I don't know what she sees in you." Al said in disgust, before walking off, looking for Stephanie. That comment though, made Chris stay still so he could digest it. Had she been talking about him with Al or something?

_I guess I'm growing on the Princess._

* * *

One week of getting beaten by a creepy little bastard like Christian was bad enough. 

Two in a row was just downright humiliating for the king of the world.

He was half helped and half dragged to the backstage, his thoughts all jumbled together as he felt a piercing headache coming on. That had been one bad shot all right, he thought, as he leaned against the refs, who were practically holding him up. Christian was probably getting payback for him blowing Al off earlier.

Or maybe it was because of Trish.

He didn't know anymore. All he knew was he wanted an ice pack.

Needless to say, he was more than shocked when the first person he met backstage was Randy. He looked up at him curiously, before shoving the refs away from him.

"Go away assclowns, I can stand." He said angrily. He sneered at Randy and went to walk off, but he lost his balance and would've fallen, had Randy not grabbed him in time.

"See, I told you you were crazy for wanting a ladder match. All he has to do is knock you out again and he'll win." Randy said knowingly, letting Chris lean against him.

"Shut up Randy." He mumbled, surprising the champion when he called him by his real name.

"Randy?" He echoed, as they walked back to the Canadian's locker room. He went slower for Chris.

"I need to lay down." Chris groaned, feeling his head pounding as Randy's surprise totally flew over his head. "Do you have any aspirin on you kid?"

"No.. you know, you might have a concussion."  
  
"What are you now, a doctor?" Chris mumbled.

Randy sighed, not knowing what he was expecting from Chris. The man was a loner; he only looked out for his own interests, for his own self. How could he have expected an apology from someone like that?

Just as he thought that, Chris once again surprised him.

"What'd you say?" Randy asked, shocked.

"I said I'm sorry Randy, and don't make me say it again."

Randy just smirked.

* * *

"Is he okay? That was a pretty bad shot." 

"Yeah, he's alright. At least, I think he's alright."  
  
"What do you mean, you _think_?"

"Well, he hasn't called me Rundo, and he's actually apologized to me."

"Wow.. so he's being nice."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Yeah, maybe he isn't alright. Can I go in?"

"Sure. I actually have to go.. I have a match against Kane."

"Good luck."

"Thanks.. I'll need it." The young man shuddered, making her laugh. As he walked off, she entered the Canadian's locker room.

Her eyes scanned the room, before they came to rest on him. He was sitting on a folding chair, his head leaned all the way back, an icepack on his forehead. She walked over and stood over him, but couldn't see his face because of the ice pack.

"That's two weeks in a row." She said knowingly.

"Stephanie?"

"You were expecting someone else?"

He removed the ice pack slowly and looked up at an upside down Stephanie.

"I hate ladders." He mumbled, and she smirked.

"Yet you like to make ladder matches. You're very backwards."

"You're the one that's upside down right now."

"How do you feel?"

"Not as bad as I'll feel after Sunday, I'm sure." He said, sighing. "So where's the boyfriend?"

"He's in my dressing room. I'm upset with him, actually."

"Yeah? How come?" He said, though he was secretly pleased.

"He's an ass sometimes. Even more than you."

"Wow, and here I thought that wasn't possible."

"Yeah, seriously." She said, laughing. "But I just wanted to make sure you were okay."  
  
"Thanks for the concern. I'm still in one piece." She nodded, looking like she wanted to say something. He scowled at her, still seeing her upside-down. "Say it."

"Huh?"

"You know you want to say something. Say it."

She looked at him in surprise, before frowning slightly. "I just wanted to say --"

"Stephanie!" Chris winced when he heard Al cry out her name as he barged into the room. "I finally found you. What are you doing here?"

Chris covered his face again with the ice pack as Stephanie scowled at her boyfriend.

"I don't have to explain what I do to you."

"Steph, come on, we have to talk."

_Steph, come on, we have to talk, _Chris mimicked to himself under the ice pack. That guy was lucky he was taking it easy for his match on Sunday, otherwise he'd be getting a royal ass kicking right then.

"I don't want to talk to you right now."

"We have to talk."

She sighed. "Fine, I'll be out in a few. You can wait until I'm done with Chris, thanks."

"Fine.. I'll be outside."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Chris heard the exchange, thoroughly amused and his headache forgotten as he wondered why the two were suddenly at odds. He smirked under the ice pack as he heard the door close.

She looked back down at him, sighing slightly and lifting the ice pack so she could see his face. "Good luck on Sunday.. be careful."

"Thanks.. what happened to my lunch proposal?"

"We'll have to see about that." She covered his face again with the ice pack again, before leaving him alone in the room. He heard the door click, and grinned to himself as he removed the ice pack and tossed it to the side.

Slowly but surely indeed.


	6. Whoops

Stephanie was minding her own business, and being the dedicated person that she was, she was busy making sure she got all her work done and the show ran smoothly. She frowned as she gazed over her clipboard, and then almost had a heart attack when Chris Jericho jumped out in front of her. She shrieked, for it seemed like he came out of absolutely nowhere (he had actually been watching her work for a while).

"Heeeeere's Chris!"

"_Stop doing that!!" _She cried, hitting him with her clipboard. He winced, rubbing his shoulder where she hit him.

"Geez, don't have to get all abusive." He said, frowning.

"Well, stop scaring the hell out of me every week!" She scolded, her breathing returning to normal. "And just so you know, that was the lamest imitation of that guy I have ever heard in my entire life."

"Well excuse me if my name isn't bland like _Johnny._" He sneered. "Or _Al_, for that matter.." She snickered and shook her head.

"Jealous, are we?"

"Jealous? _Jealous_? Me, of Al? JEALOUS YOU SAY?!" At this, he burst out laughing. "Jealous of _what_? He has _nothing_ that I don't have."

"He has me." She said, raising an eyebrow. He tilted his head as he looked at her, reluctantly accepting that response.

_Not for long anyways, _he thought smugly to himself, his trademark smirk creeping back to his face.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, knowing he was never up to any good when that smirk crossed his features.

"Fine, considering I almost got raped by a ladder."

"I bet that was quite a bruise this morning." There was a hint of amusement in her voice.

"I can show you, if you're curious."

"Yeah, right." She rolled her eyes.

"If Rikishi can parade around showing his ass off, I can show off my ass, which is a thousand times more gorgeous."

"What are you going to do? Drop your tights to prove a point?"

"Why Steph, I thought you'd never ask." He smirked as his hands went to his tights, and her eyes widened.

"I swear, if you so even.." She started, warningly.

"You know you want to see, baby." He teased.

"You've got Shawn Michaels in the Highlight Reel tonight." She stated, looking back down at her clipboard. He popped a bubble with his gum, watching her intently, highly amused.

"I love the sudden change of subject." He said, prompting her to give him an annoyed look.

"Your head is the size of Texas. Just wanted to make that clear, because you might have been too full of yourself to notice."

"You know you like it." He winked at her. "You need a real man, Steph."

"And she has one."

They both turned to look at the man that had been nothing but a thorn in Chris' side since the moment he found out that Stephanie was taken. Chris snickered and rolled his eyes as the other man approached them. Al wrapped his arms around Stephanie's waist, pulling her lightly to him as he gave the Canadian a smirk that made Chris want to go and knock his lights out. However, having the unbelievable self-control that he was blessed with (at the moment anyways), Chris just matched his nemesis' smirk.

"Does she? I must have missed that memo." He replied, ignoring the look that Stephanie was giving him.

"Well that's too bad, I'm sorry to hear that." Al replied, his tone matching Chris's. Chris narrowed his eyes as he looked at him curiously; he felt like he knew Al from somewhere, but it just wasn't clicking. Stephanie saw the look Chris was giving Al and decided to say something, for her boyfriend's sake, but Chris beat her to it.

"Steph, have you seen Rundo around?" He asked her directly, choosing to ignore the idiot behind her.

"No, I haven't."

"I need to talk to him."

"Rundo? Isn't his name Randy?" Al asked, earning a look of disgust from Chris.

"Yes Alice, that's his name. And your point is what exactly?" He answered in that smart-ass tone that only he could use.

"The _name _is _Al. _Get it right."

"Chris, don't you have something to do?" Stephanie cut in, seeing the potential of the situation spiraling out of control very quickly. She figured it would happen sooner or later, with a defensive boyfriend and an egotistical friend like Chris Jericho, who everyone knew had a razor sharp tongue. She glared at Chris, giving him a look. He knew that now was not the time to challenge that look.

"Yes yes, I have to find Rundo. I'll see you later then?" He asked, with a pout. She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Yes.. you can get out of here now."

* * *

Chris scowled as he scrolled through the menus on his cell phone, reading the text messages that he had been interchanging with Randy. 

Sent 1: _Where in the hell are you kid??_

Inbox 1: _I'm in the cake_

Sent 2: _In the cake????? Now's not the time for smart answers Rundo_

Inbox 2: _No I'm seriously in the cake_

Sent 3: .. _Wtf ?????_

Inbox 3: _THE CAKE FOR TRIPLE H.. don't say anything_

Sent 4: _YOU'RE GOING TO STRIP FOR HHH?????_

Inbox 4: _NO! Ugh I give up.. watch the show_

Sent 5: _If I have to watch you strip I'm going to beat your ass kid_

Inbox 5: _Are you not watching the show???? _

Sent 6: _No.. H is out there rambling  
  
_Inbox 6: _TURN THE TV ON GENIUS_

_Damn kid is going crazy from losing that belt, _Chris thought in disgust as he flipped on the TV. He hated watching the show when Triple H was out there running his mouth. The man was full of himself. Chris hated egotistical people with a passion.

A shift of camera angle showed the gigantic cake in the middle of the ring, causing Chris to whip out his cell phone and send another text message.

Sent 7: _YOU'RE IN THE CAKE????_

He stared at his phone and about a minute later, it vibrated.

Inbox 7: _YES THATS WHAT I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU.. I'm waiting for him to stop talking already_

Chris read the message and rolled his eyes, and was about to send a message back telling his young friend that he would probably suffocate before The Nose ran out of wind, when Triple H finally turned his attention to the cake. A few drawn out minutes later, the pyro blasted, and Chris watched amused as Randy took on Evolution on his own. He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride, especially when Randy knocked Triple H back into the cake.

_He learns from the best._

* * *

"You've got balls Rundo. You're going to get an ass kicking later on tonight in that handicap match, but you've got balls, I'll give you that. How long were you in that cake?" 

"Man I was in there the whole time!" Randy said, wiping the cake off himself with a towel. "I took my phone with me just in case they never opened the cake.. I didn't want to be stuck in there." Chris rolled his eyes, as someone else caught Randy's eye. He nudged Chris in the ribs with his elbow, making the Canadian wince slightly.

"What the hell was that for?" Chris growled angrily, rubbing his sore ribs.

"There she goes.. 11 o'clock."

Chris looked over in that direction and a smirk crept up to his lips. Running a hand through his hair, he stalked over to the young woman, who didn't see him approaching. Since she wasn't facing him, he leaned in close to her ear.

"Long time no talk." He whispered. She froze when she heard his voice, and then turned around with a look of disgust on her face.

"What do _you _want?" She demanded, though he had caught her completely off guard.

"The question baby, is what do _you _want?" He shot back, raising an eyebrow suggestively. She sneered at him.

"Don't come over here playing your stupid games Jericho, they're not going to work."

"You haven't changed much, Trish." He said, smirking. "I actually don't want anything to do with you. I found me a real woman, who can beat your ass any day of the week." He added, his smirk growing into a smile. The sight of that charming smile pissed her off even more.

"I know you have a thing for Lita," She said bitterly, making his smile grow even wider. "You're not fooling anyone, Jericho."

He leaned in closer to her, making her bite her lip and stick her chin up at him defiantly. That made him laugh, and he shook his head.

"I'm not going to kiss you, I don't know where those lips of yours have been.. even though I know you want me to." Something flared in her eyes at his words, which was enough confirmation for him that what Randy had told him was indeed true, much to his own personal amusement.

"What do you want?" She asked again.  
  
"Just wanted to say hi for old time's sake. Hope your boy-toy Christian isn't moping around too much after losing last night."  
  
"You're a waste of my time." She said in disgust.

"It's not Lita."

"What?" She asked, genuinely confused as she looked into the blue eyes that once held warmth for her, and now held absolutely nothing except the same mocking look he'd give any opponent in the ring.

"I said, it's not Lita."

"But.." Her voice trailed off, as she searched his face for any hint that he was playing a game with her. She trusted the man in front of her about as far as she could throw him.

He raised an eyebrow, amused, before Randy walked over to them. He ignored Chris as he looked at Trish curiously.

"Call me crazy but, shouldn't you be out there?" He asked, jerking his thumb in the general direction of the gorilla position.

"What are you talking about?" She said, even more confused and growing more pissed with every passing second.

"Well all the girls are out there fighting, so I was just wondering why you weren't out there, being the champion and all.."

She gave them both a dirty look before running off towards the gorilla position, with Randy and Chris watching her the whole way.

"What was that about?" Randy finally asked.

"Just wanted to see if you were right, and you were. She still wants me."

"You don't want her though, right?" At this, Randy got another "stupid rookie" look from Chris. "Just checking, geez." He mumbled.

"No Rundo, I don't want her.. but who knows.. this may work as an advantage one day."

"What are those odds?" Randy asked, snickering.

"You never know, kid."

* * *

"What is Christian's problem?" Chris snarled, walking quickly as Randy tried to keep up. "Always getting into my business. Jealous because I got the belt and I could have his slut girl if I wanted too. He's always been jealous of me. I carried our tag team, he's _nothing _without me, or some stupid goat-looking steroid-juiced freak like Tomko." 

"I think it had to do with what you said to Trish earlier."

"Screw Trish." The Canadian spat out. "I was supposed to face Michaels tonight, and beat him, retaining my title and finally proving that I'm better than him too! But no.. I had to deal with Christian instead. And believe me, that bastard is out of _Shawn's _league.. let's not even say anything about me."

"He laid out Shawn afterwards though." Randy noted, earning a snort from Chris.

"You can do that to anybody, kid. Doesn't require skill or brains to lay someone out. Whatever." He snuck Randy a look. "You ready for your match?"

"I'm starting to think that maybe the cake idea wasn't so bright." The young man said, forcing a laugh. Quite frankly, he was nervous about the match later. Part of him wanted to ask Chris if maybe he could help him, but the other more confident part of Randy didn't allow him to.

"Well, you're not the smartest guy I know." Chris said rather bluntly. "I know it's tough to lose the title kid, but you have to remember to pick the fights wisely."

"This coming from the guy that throws himself into ladder matches.. and then into the ladders themselves."

"Ha ha," Chris said dryly, "You are just hilarious."

"Oh look, it's your favorite person."

"How can that be when I'm right here?"

".. Your second favorite person then."

_Speak of the devil._

"Come on Rundo, let's go make ourselves social."

"Why are you dragging me into this?"

"What have I told you about questioning me?" Chris got his second "look" for the day. "Alright, alright, stay here then junior. Watch the master at work."

_Master of what? _Randy thought to himself, watching as Chris made his way over to his two biggest rivals: one was his wrestling rival, but the other was more personal, because he stood in between Chris making Stephanie his. Therefore, the latter of the two was the one he detested more.

"Well well well, what have we here? Dumb and dumber in their true forms?" Chris sneered, making his way over to the two.

"What do you want, Jericho?" Christian answered, cutting off his conversation with Al as he turned to his former tag team partner. "Didn't you take a hint from what I did to Shawn Michaels? Huh? Did you see what I did to him?"

"Yeah, I saw, and I wasn't that impressed." Chris said, shifting his gaze to Al. "I'm not impressed easily."

"Hey Chris, looks like you're going to need some of that ass cream from back in the day, huh?" Christian said, laughing. "That ladder really did a number on you, huh? Must have disrupted your night out with the boys, if you get what I mean."

Chris faked a laugh. "Man, did it take you all night to come up with that one?"

"Is it true that you have a thing for Stephanie now? Dude, that's rather pathetic. First Trish, and now Steph. One slut to another."

What seemed like hours to Al, but happened in fractions of a second to Chris, the now irate Canadian grabbed his former tag team partner's shirt with one hand, and pulled back his free hand, curling it into a fist. Aiming directly at Christian's ugly nose, Chris let go a swing, putting some extra force behind it.. to prove a point, of course.

What he wasn't counting on was Christian ducking at the last second..  
  
.. And his fist flying and connecting with Al's face instead.

_Oh shit. _Was Chris's first thought as he realized what had happened. Christian saw his opportunity to hightail it out of there, which he promptly did. Meanwhile, Al was on the floor, holding his now numb face with both of his hands.

Randy jogged up next to him, looking down at Al. Chris gave him a look and shrugged.

"I didn't mean to hit him." He mumbled, more as an explanation than an apology.

"But you did." Randy said, looking down at Stephanie's boyfriend. "And damn, did you ever.. that was a pretty hard shot."

"It was _meant _for Christian." Chris growled, glaring at Al as if it was his fault.

"Like it matters though, right?"

"Well, it was an accident." The older man concluded, shrugging.

"Tell that to her." Randy said, stepping off to the side a little.  
  
"Huh?" Chris asked, confused. He turned to look over his shoulder, only to find a pissed-off Stephanie McMahon glaring back at him. Immediately fearing her slap (which had a lot of sting, and he should know), he took a step back from the angry princess.

"Stephanie," He started, raising his arms up defensively, "It's not what it looks like."

She turned her attention to her fallen boyfriend, who was sitting up and couldn't open his right eye. He groaned in pain, obviously never having been hit before - and if he had been hit, it wasn't by someone like Chris Jericho. That much was obvious.

Chris watched him and couldn't help but snicker. The sight was truly pathetic. This earned him a look from Stephanie that could have killed, which made him stop real fast.

"You're an ass." She stated, with a look that felt to Chris like it was made out of steel. "True and complete ass, you know that?"

"He was in the way!" He said, only realizing how childish he sounded when the words were out of his mouth.

"In the way?" She echoed disbelievingly, as she helped Al stand back up. Al glared at Chris out of one eye.

"I meant to hit Christian, Christian ducked, boom, I hit your boyfriend." Chris explained, shrugging. "Tough break Al. Wrong place at the wrong time."

"That's not what happened." Al stated, pain lacing his voice. Chris gave him a suspicious look, as did Stephanie. "He said he was trying to get me out of the way and he DELIBERATELY attacked me."

".. That is complete bullshit!" Chris snarled, and went to grab Al to _really _attack him when Stephanie raised a hand to stop him. "He's lying, Steph! He's a no-good two-faced assclown who's probably only _using _you to get to the top! Like Triple H did!"

"That's probably what_ you_ want to do, jackass!" Al shouted back at him.

"Steph, Rundo saw what happened, he'll back it up, tell you what really happened." Chris reasoned. "He'll show you that your boyfriend is full of _crap. _The human toilet is what he is."

"Randy Orton?" Al scoffed and turned to Stephanie. "You can't trust him, not while he's friends with this imbecile. Just last week Jericho put him up to taking me to a private locker room with the diva contestants! When I said I wanted to come back to you, Orton told me that you'd never know what went on there! He's just as much of a snake as this one here!"

"Is that true, Chris?" Stephanie asked, looking at Chris with a look he couldn't decipher.

_Come clean or lie._

_Lying will get me out of this._

_But if she asks Rundo and he tells the truth, I am so screwed.  
  
Best come clean, for now._

"Stephanie.. Randy did take Al over to meet them.. but he _liked _it!"

"Are you kidding me? I hated it." Al said in disgust. Chris had to give the guy credit; he was almost as good at lying as he was.

"Let's get out of here." Stephanie said, ending the ongoing debate. She gave Chris a dirty look, which honestly surprised him, before walking away. Al, however, gave Chris a triumphant look - the kind of look the Canadian was fond of getting rid of by holding the owner of the look in the Walls for an especially long length of time.

Chris Jericho, however, had never been one to quit easily. He went to go after Stephanie and force her to see just what a scumbag her boyfriend was, when Randy grabbed his arm, promptly stopping him. Chris gave him an impatient look.

"What is it, kid?" He demanded. Randy pointed at a monitor, causing the already irritated Canadian to become even _more_ irritated. "Just tell me already, I don't have the time for -"

"It's Lita. She's hurt, I didn't see what happened, but -"

Chris yanked his arm out of Randy's grip and stalked over to the monitor to have a look for himself. He watched blankly as she was loaded into an ambulance. He started to feel sick to his stomach when he felt Randy next to him.

The Canadian's vision turned to red at the sight of Kane (ironic indeed). He quickly concluded that whatever reason there was for his friend having to go to the hospital, Kane was responsible.

Randy looked at Chris, seeing that his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white. He didn't know if it was because of Al or Kane, or maybe it was a combination of both within the span of two minutes. That would drive anyone insane, he reasoned.

"She better be okay, or I swear.." Chris mumbled to himself.

"I'm sure she will be, they know what they're doing." Randy tried to reason. When he was met with silence, he tried to change the subject. "What are you going to do about Stephanie?"

At that, Chris scowled.

"Nothing right now, she's listening to him too much. I guess I'll have to try to talk to her next week, when hopefully, she'll have calmed down enough to actually listen to me."

"Do you think she'll believe you?"

"She better."


	7. Planning, a verb

A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to get this up.. just kinda been bombarded with homework these days.... 

Ah the nickname Rundo.. lol.. first off I'm really glad you guys like it, because I had doubts that you guys would. Someone asked how I came up with it and well.. it just kinda came to me lol. I wanted a nickname for him and tried thinking of a name that Chris really would give him, and Rundo was the first thing that came to mind.. and I couldn't think of another one so.. I just went with it. :) 

But anyways.. I don't own anything.. Vince does!! Hope you guys enjoy.. one of the longer ones but.. that's just how it came out. :P

* * *

Randy knew he was in for an interesting day when he agreed to travel with Chris Jericho to Raw, but he wasn't expecting this. 

The day started easy enough, and for two egotistical wrestlers (Chris was in denial; Randy, on the other hand, knew he had an ego and quite frankly didn't care), they actually got along very well. He was enjoying having someone to talk to before the show much more than hanging out by himself, and could now safely refer to Chris as his friend (though the older man referred to him as his "lackey"). So when Chris asked if he wanted to accompany him to get a haircut, Randy didn't see a reason to say no. 

He obviously still had a lot to learn about his Canadian friend, especially in regards to the importance of his hair. 

_"Look at what you did to my gorgeous hair!"_ An irate blonde man screamed, making Randy look up from the Raw magazine he was reading. 

The barber looked at his customer, who was red in the face as he glared back at him. "But sir, you asked for a trim -" 

_"A trim you idiot!! Not chop off my locks!! FIX IT NOW, JUNIOR, BEFORE I SHOVE THOSE SCISSORS --"_

"Whoa, whoa," Randy said, smiling uneasily at the barber as he jogged up to them, avoiding the looks Chris' shouts were getting. He gripped his friend's shoulders from behind, in an effort to keep the fuming Canadian from assaulting the barber. "He'll fix it Jericho, relax." 

_"DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX RUNDO!"_

"You know, I can't work with your friend upset like this." The barber said, giving Randy a stern look. "Tell him to stop acting like a baby, he asked for a trim, and I gave him a trim." 

Within seconds, Chris was on his feet with an attempt to strangle his barber for ruining his precious hair (and then adding insult to injury); he would have done so too, had Randy not intervened and grabbed him just in time. 

"JACKASS! I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER! YOU MORON! THE KING OF THE WORLD CANNOT GO OUT WITH A HAIRCUT LIKE THIS!!" 

"Thank you for your time!" Randy managed to get out, as he dragged Chris (who was still screaming curses at the barber) out of there. Once they were on the street and Randy deemed it safe (and also deemed his friend certifiably insane), he let him go. As soon as he did, Chris turned to the nearest car and scowled angrily at his reflection. 

"That idiot!" He hissed, running a hand through his hair. 

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Randy asked, gazing at Chris. His outburst had caught Randy unaware; he didn't want to know what the Canadian would have done to the barber had he not gone with him. "It doesn't look _that_ bad." 

Chris shot him a death glare and walked off towards his car, muttering under his breath as Randy walked behind him. 

The truth was that Chris didn't mind the haircut at all. He personally thought he was the hottest man alive, no matter how his hair looked. Instead, he was upset for one simple reason, which to his great shock, Randy just so happened to guess as they both got in the car. 

"I know you're probably worried and all that Stephanie's not going to like it, but --" 

"Who said I was worried about Stephanie?" Chris snapped as he pulled out of his parking space, though he knew Randy had hit it right on the head. 

"Well everyone knows she has a thing for guys with long hair, that's common knowledge." Randy answered, shrugging. 

"I don't care what she thinks." 

"Yeah, you don't care, you only almost killed that barber for ruining your 'gorgeous head of hair'," Randy said, snickering. 

Chris' scowl deepened and he decided that Randy was no longer worth his efforts. After all, he figured, what did a kid know about good hair anyways? They rode in silence for a few minutes, and his thoughts were travelling back to what had happened the week before when Randy cut the silence.

"Apology." He stated, earning a bewildered look from Chris.

"What are you talking about?" The Canadian asked, irritated, before seeing what Randy was holding in his hands. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"It was in the glove compartment.. let's see.." The young man said, his voice trailing as he leafed through the dictionary that someone had left behind in the rental, "Oh, here we go. Apology, a noun. An acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense."

"Wow, you can read. Do you want a cookie?" Chris mumbled.

Randy continued, ignoring the comment. "An expression of regret at having caused trouble for someone.. does knocking a guy on his ass constitute causing trouble?"

"Are you actually suggesting I apologize to _Al? _Have you lost your mind?" Chris snarled.

"No, but you should apologize to Stephanie."

"For the haircut?"

"For hitting her boyfriend." Randy corrected.

"It wasn't my fault."

"Yeah well, you might have better luck if you apologize."

"I don't apologize for things that aren't my fault."

"Egotism, a noun. The tendency to speak or write of oneself excessively or boastfully. See Chris Jericho."

"If you don't put that damn dictionary down, I'm throwing it out the window Rundo."

"Hmmm... jackass, a noun. Male donkey, or a man who is a stupid incompetent fool. See Chris Jericho again! Look at that, you're the king of the dictionary."

Chris shot Randy a look. "You are lucky I'm driving kid, because you're treading on thin ice right now." He said warningly, making Randy laugh, though he did close the dictionary.

"What are you going to tell Stephanie?"

"Well maybe if you weren't busy acting like an idiot, you'd help me think of something, assclown."

"Hey, I've always wondered if 'assclown' is in the --"

"ORTON.."

"Alright alright, geez.. well I already told you to apologize."

"Can't you think of anything better?" Chris said in disgust.

"No, not really. She's probably still pissed at you."

"Well aren't you the supportive one." The Canadian muttered as he pulled into the arena.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

* * *

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Chris had come to the conclusion that whoever said that phrase had obviously had one too many encounters with Stephanie McMahon. 

He frowned again as he knocked on the door to her dressing room. He knew from experience that she liked being early, so he figured she had to be in there. Getting irritated, he knocked again, harder this time. For the first time, he didn't have a plan of what he would say. He was excellent at improvising though, so he wasn't worried; if there was anyone who could speak on the fly, it was definitely him.

Finally, the door opened. Chris immediately forced a smile as the wrong McMahon stood before him, inwardly cursing his luck.

"Vince! What a surprise!" He exclaimed, extending his hand out to the boss.

"Ah, Jericho." Vince greeted, shaking his hand. "If you came to see my daughter, she's not here right now. She stepped out with her boyfriend, who I'm sure you know.. having given him a black eye and all."

"Oh, well," Chris said, trying hard not to stutter. So much for being smooth, he thought disappointedly. "I uh.. well, it wasn't intentional.."

Vince laughed and waved it off. "Don't explain yourself to me, explain it to Stephanie. Good luck with that too, she's still very upset about that one."

"Is she?" That wasn't much of a comfort.

"Yes, she is.. I'm a little disappointed that you aren't getting along well with Al, to be honest, Jericho. He's a fine young man, who will make a good son-in-law."

Chris winced at that one, somehow managing a slight smile in the process. "I'm sure.."

"By the way, that idea you had the other week was excellent, I've been meaning to tell you. You gave me an amazing idea, something I think the fans will really like."

"Oh.. that's nice." Chris said, to be polite, though he really didn't care.

"Don't worry, I'll give you your share of the credit when I make my announcement later on tonight. Be sure you watch."

"I will.. well, I should get going."

"Nice talking to you again Jericho," Vince said, as they shook hands again. "Nice haircut by the way."

_Sarcasm noted, thanks.. jackass._

"Thanks Vince, see you around."

An hour later, the Canadian found himself wandering the hallways, a scowl on his face as he grew more pissed with every passing moment. For one, his haircut was getting some looks and some snickers from the other wrestlers, but to do anything about it would initiate a huge fight which he didn't feel like having traced back to him (at least not with Vince at the show).

Also, he wasn't exactly planning on defending his title against Shawn Michaels that night. Sure, he was all for proving that _he _deserved the "Show Stopper" nickname, but did it _have _to be on _that _night? God, couldn't they give him a break?

And he also couldn't find Stephanie, which was probably the most upsetting thing of all.

Then there was Randy, putting the icing on the cake as he followed him around, reading off random words from the dictionary, and getting on the Canadian's last nerves in the process.

Needless to say, Chris was not in the best of moods.

"Stephanie isn't in the dictionary, but _stephanite _is. Let's see here.. _stephanite, _a noun. A sulphide of antimony --"

"Are you done?" Chris growled. "How about making yourself useful for once and helping me find her in person and not in a dictionary?"

"Impatience, a noun. Lack of patience, irritation with anything that causes delay."

"Like a rookie who doesn't know how to win and doesn't know how to help find someone! How's that for not being good for anything and causing delays?!"

"What's your problem?"

"What's yours junior?! You have something you want to say to me?" Chris said, stopping in his tracks and glaring at Randy, though he had to look up at him.

They stared at each other for a moment, before Randy snickered. Anger flashed through the Canadian's eyes at this, but the young man didn't notice as he shook his head.

"You need to relax, Chris. You're too uptight, it's not good. I'm only trying to enrich our vocabularies."

"You're talking to an educated man, Rundo, I'm smoother with words than Shakespeare! I need no dictionary to know how to speak!" Chris said, indignantly.

"Besides, why are you killing yourself looking for Stephanie? She's right over there." Randy said, gesturing behind the Canadian. Chris turned and caught sight of a female's back, who he immediately placed as Stephanie. He'd know her anywhere.

"You idiot! Why didn't you tell me she was over there?"

"You didn't ask." Randy said smugly.

"Imbecile! Look that up, assclown." Chris sneered, before walking away towards Stephanie, leaving Randy flipping through the pages of his dictionary.

He found her by the vending machines, pounding her fist angrily against the soda machine. He stood right behind her, crossing his arms as he merely observed. His anger and frustration gone for the most part (due to getting away from Randy for a while and finding Stephanie), the feelings were now replaced with curiousity and a tinge of amusement.

"Allow me, Princess?"

She stopped pounding at the sound of his voice. Sticking up her chin and her trademark "bitchy" look coming to her face, she turned around to give him a piece of her mind. Her words died on her lips as she caught sight of his hair, making her forget about her anger (at least for the moment).

He tried not to show his panic when she simply stared at his hair, choosing instead to scowl.

"You cut it." She said softly. He couldn't tell if this was a good reaction or not, so he just shrugged.  
  
"I asked for a trim, and this was the moron's idea of a trim. Can you believe it?"

"It looks.. nice."

"If you don't like it, you can just say so." He mumbled, hating the way his cheeks felt like they burned. He could only imagine how bad he looked.

"I said it looks nice. I always wondered how you would look if you cut your hair. I like it."

"You don't have to lie," He said, feeling his cheeks burn even more. "I've been getting nothing but bad looks all night long. No one likes it, I knew I shouldn't have gone to that barber, but I.."

"Oh who cares, I think you look fine." She said, catching herself before she said "I think you look good no matter how your hair looks", which was what she was thinking.

"Yeah, well I guess you're right." He said smugly, his ego coming back full swing now that she had repaired it single-handedly. He thought he looked good, so did she, and that was all he needed. "I am a sexy beast after all."

"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes as she remembered that she was upset with him. "I don't want to speak to you right now."

"Oh, your soda." Ignoring her statement, he stepped up to the vending machine and gave her a playful wink, which she answered with a glare. "Watch the king at work, baby."

She snickered as he reared back and rammed his elbow into the soda machine, so hard in fact that he left a dent. He shook off his arm, and seconds later a soda rolled into the slot. He grabbed it and then handed it to her.

"Do I get a thank you? In the form of a kiss would be fantastic." He said, smiling. She sneered at him and snatched the soda out of his hand.

"You wish."

"Oh come on Stephanie, give me a break." He said, sighing. "It was an accident."

"Mhmm.. sure it was." With that, she started walking away, but he was right on her heels.

"It was! Steph, let's be realistic here. If I wanted to beat up your little boyfriend, trust me, I'd do a lot more than what I did last week."

"I thought I said I didn't want to speak to you right now. Don't you have a match coming up soon anyways?"

"The show hasn't even started yet, Stephanie."  
  
"Are you getting smart with me?"

"So what if I am?"

"Honestly Jericho, I swear, you only think about yourself! Never in my _whole entire life _have I met _anyone _as self-centered, obnoxious.."

"You're forgetting good-looking."

"_Arrogant! _The list goes on and on with you!"

"You didn't deny it though." He said, smirking. She stopped walking and just looked at him, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him, though she was incredibly inclined to let her eyes wander all over him..

"Deny what?" She demanded. His smirk grew as he leaned in closer to her, until their noses were only centimeters apart.

"That I'm good-looking." He stated in a challenging tone. His eyes dropped to her lips as he licked his own. "I believe we were interrupted last time.."

"Don't you dare.." She said warningly, though she didn't make an effort to create distance between them.

"And what if I do?"

"You'll regret it."

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't.." He was leaning in and was fractions of a second away from kissing her the way Al could only dream of kissing, when she backed up, leaving him hanging in the wind. He growled in frustration. That was the second time that happened.

"Al, sweetie." Stephanie said, finally able to breathe now that she wasn't so close to Chris. She hated when he did that to her, because it always felt like he disjointed her body and her mind - her mind was always screaming for distance, but yet, she could never move to get out of the situation.

With that in mind, how could Al not be her savior?

"Stephanie," Al greeted, kissing her on the cheek. He finally turned, acknowledging the Intercontinental Champion. "What do _you _want?" He said, snidely.

"Nice black eye." Chris said, snickering.

"Nice haircut." Al shot back.  
  
"That's enough, you two." Stephanie stated, as they stared each other down. "Honestly, you're both like little kids."

"We were having a conversation, you know." Chris said, his eyes locked on Al's.. well, Al's good eye anyway.

"Well it must not have been that important, since she would much rather talk to me." Al responded.

"Chris, do you mind?"  
  
"Fine, I'll leave, but this isn't over, Stephanie."

"Don't worry, we'll talk."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, three men and a woman were discussing strategy in an empty locker room. 

"It's her. It's _been _her from the beginning."

"It makes sense. He's always been into her, from the moment he first saw her, he's been into her."

"He's trying to take her away from me."

"Well, we're going to have divide and conquer. How does she feel towards him?"

"Hard to tell. Sometimes I feel like she can't stand the sight of him, and there are other instances where she looks at him.. like he's the only thing she sees, even when _I'm _there! Other times, they go back and forth with each other, but that's just their thing.. they love their banters, it's obvious, and sickening."

"They're both very proud and very stubborn. I know Chris better than anyone in this room, except for maybe you, my dear." Christian said, pinching Trish's cheek. She growled and slapped his hand away, making him snicker.

"And I know Stephanie." Al said, smirking. "I know he's trying to get her, I can see it in his eyes.. he wants her, and he doesn't care that she's with me.. he wants her."

"He's persistent, let me tell you. If he wants her, he's going after her."

Silence filled the room. Tyson finally cleared his throat, and all eyes turned to him.

"Divide and conquer. Al, you're our spy. Trish, you handle Stephanie. Me and Christian will handle Jericho. Everyone wins."

"You guys hear that? The big man has a plan." Christian said, hitting Tyson on the arm. "You rule dude."

"Well then," Trish said, rubbing her hands together, "Let's get to work, boys."

* * *

"So did you apologize?" Randy asked, sitting across the locker room from Chris, who was lacing up his boots for his match against Shawn Michaels. 

"What did I tell you Rundo? There's nothing to apologize for. Stephanie can't stay mad at me forever though." He said, snickering. "I know she wants me."

"And you claim to have no ego."

"I don't, I'm very modest. I state facts, and Stephanie wanting me, Rundo, is a painfully obvious fact. That doesn't make me arrogant." With that, he stood up and grabbed his championship belt, wrapping it around his waist. Randy eyed the action, unable to sustain the slight pang of jealousy that coursed through him at the sight. He hadn't quite swallowed the fact that he was no longer champion.

"So what are you going to do?" He said, looking back down at the Raw magazine he had been reading.

"Beat Shawn Michaels and prove to the world that I am the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time." Chris said smugly.

"I meant about Stephanie."

"I'm going to make her mine by the end of the night. All I need is one kiss and one date, and I'll have her all over me. I get the kiss, I'll definitely get the date. But I can't think of that right now, otherwise this assclown is going to beat me. See you later kid."

"Later Jericho."

* * *

"Come in." Stephanie said, sighing as she looked over all the work she still had left to do. The new "Taboo Tuesday" thing was sure giving her a headache. She looked up, surprised at who strolled into her dressing room. 

"Hi Stephanie, long time no talk."

"Trish, I wasn't expecting you. What can I do for you?"

"I was going to throw out an idea for you, to see what you thought and to get another woman's opinion, of course. It's about this whole diva contestant search thing."

"What about it?"

"I wanted to have a little something done for the winner next week, as a sort of.. welcome to the WWE kind of thing. Think you could help me out?"

"Sure, sounds good. Just let me know exactly what it is you want to do."

"I will." Trish said, smiling politely. She then caught sight of the TV in Stephanie's room. "Oh, can I see what's going on with the show? I don't want to miss them announcing the winner of the search."

"Go ahead." Stephanie said, already back to her work. Trish walked over and turned on the TV, where she caught sight of Chris Jericho battling it out with Shawn Michaels.

"Oh look, Chris is fighting."

Stephanie looked up, looking at Trish curiously. She knew full well about the colorful history the blonde had with Chris, and she also knew for a fact that, although he still denied it to the current day, she had hurt him with her betrayal at Wrestlemania.

Trish caught sight of the look Stephanie was giving her and laughed. "We talk, don't worry."

"Oh, I see." Stephanie said, inwardly wondering why Chris had never mentioned that. "You guys talk huh?"

"Yes.. just last week he was hitting on me, the silly boy." Hey, it wasn't a complete lie. He had made suggestive comments.. who cared if he didn't mean any of them, what Stephanie didn't know, wouldn't hurt the plan.

The flare of jealousy that Stephanie felt at the words of the Women Champion was a relatively new sensation. She angrily suppressed the feeling, telling herself that she wasn't even interested in Chris - hell, he was nothing to her except another wrestler she had to deal with. Okay, she considered him a friend. But there was _nothing _in their relationship that gave her the right to be _jealous! _

Trish smirked when she saw Stephanie scowl as she fell into thought. _Hit the spot with that one, _she thought gleefully.

"He's a good looking guy, isn't he?" She continued. "Those eyes, that body.. those moves.. and he has moves, I should know."

Stephanie "hmphed" and looked back down at her work.

"Don't you find him attractive, Stephanie?"

"He's alright, I guess." The brunette answered nonchalantly. Of course she found the man to be attractive! She just didn't feel the need for the blonde to know that. "I have a boyfriend though."

"Oh, that's really good to hear, congratulations." They both looked back at the TV in time to see Chris land his lionsault on Shawn.

"I feel bad for him." Trish said, her eyes on the match.

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Well, he's having such a hard time nowadays. He was hitting on me last week, and the week before that he was hitting on Stacy. He also has this thing for Lita, it's really weird. He's becoming rather obsessive.. I heard that he's just winding down his options. I wonder who he's going to go after next.. I feel for whoever the girl is."

"That doesn't really sound like his style." Stephanie said knowingly, not wanting to believe that what she was saying was true. She was beginning to grow a little fond of the Canadian, as arrogant as the man was.

"Oh Steph," Trish said, sighing as she looked back at her. "Chris is looking for a _fix, _if you know what I mean. He knows he's good looking and he uses it to his advantage. A girl would have to be stupid to actually believe he has good intentions, let me tell you."

Stephanie forced a laugh. "Yeah, you're right."

"Oh Steph, I know I am."

* * *

"Beating, a noun. An act of repeated hitting or striking. See ass-kicking from Tomko and Christian." 

"Funny stuff kid, look at me, I'm dying with laughter."

"Sarcasm, a noun. A form of wit marked by the use of sarcastic language, intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.. wait, is that what it says?" Randy leaned in to take a closer look, noting how the ink was smearing. He therefore didn't have time to react before Chris slammed the dictionary shut, making a sandwich out of his nose in the process.

"OW!" Randy cried, more embarassed than hurt as he rubbed his nose.

"Told you to leave that dictionary in the car, Rundo." Chris said, walking off towards his locker room. Randy resisted the urge to throw the dictionary at the back of his head (_that would show him_), choosing to follow him instead, mumbling something about Canadians and egos.

Neither of the two was expecting to find Al pacing around in Chris' locker room. As soon as the Canadian opened the door, Al turned and glared at him.

"You lost or something, junior?" Chris asked casually as he entered, Randy right behind him with a slightly reddenned nose.

"I just came to make one thing perfectly clear with you, Jericho." Al said, stalking right up to the wrestlers, black eye and all. Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Speak Alice, I don't have all day."

"The _name," _Al said, poking Chris on the chest. It was Randy's turn to raise an eyebrow. "..is _Al." _Another poke. "And _Stephanie.. is.." _Poke. "_..my.." _Poke. "_..girl._" He went to poke him again, but Chris grabbed his hand before he could.

"If you ever touch me again, I'll make that black eye look like kid's play, got it?" Chris said in a low and threatening voice, before letting him go. "And I know she's your girl. I'm not stupid, assclown."

"Stay away from her, Jericho, I mean it." Al said. Randy snickered - even he watched his words around Chris, and he could take him on. This guy had a sharp tongue, and not much to back anything up either.

"Are you done? You're wasting my time." Chris said, rolling his eyes as he tossed his Intercontinental championship over one shoulder. "And my time is precious, junior."

"You just remember what I said." Al's gaze then shifted over to Randy. "You're not the only one with friends."

"You can leave now, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out." Chris said, walking over to his gym bag. Al sneered at his back before walking past Randy and leaving.

"What an ass." Randy said, after he was gone.

"Yep.. Stephanie doesn't have the best judgment when it comes to men apparently. Test, Trips, Kirk Angel, now this moron. Boy I tell you. That girl needs me."

"What do you think he was talking about though?"

"Who cares?"

"He might be up to something." Randy said suspiciously. Chris gave him a doubtful look.

"Please Rudolph, the man is more dense than Trish."

"Rudolph?" The young man scowled as Chris snickered.

"I call it like I see it, kid."

At the thought of a potentially red nose ruining his good looks, Randy suddenly remembered what he had been waiting to tell his companion.

"Chris, man, I forgot to tell you."

"What is it now, Rudolph?" Chris asked, digging around his gym bag for a clean pair of socks. "I need to take a shower so you're going to have to hightail it out of here. Get ready for your own match later on tonight."

"It's about Lita."

That was enough. Chris stopped his search and looked back up at Randy, who sighed. He was never very good at telling people these kind of things.

"Goddamn it Randy, say something." Chris said, irritated with the younger man's hesitation. Randy knew he was serious from the usage of his real name, so he forced himself to tell Chris what had been going on with Lita and Kane.

Chris stood still as he heard the news, while Randy tried hard to read him. He had expected his friend to go crazy as soon as he heard (after all, this was the same man who had almost strangled a barber), but he had yet to see any kind of reaction coming from him. After a minute of awkward waiting for a response, Ignoring the nagging need to ask him if he was all right, he instead cleared his throat.

"Chris?"

The Canadian's eyes seemed to focus again as he looked at Randy. "You mind leaving me alone for a while, kid?" It was more of a demand than a question.

"Sure.." Randy said, though he hesitated. Chris snickered slightly at this.

"I'll be alright Rundo, just let me be for a while."

Randy felt relieved at the use of the nickname he was getting used to being called from Chris. He nodded and left him alone, going off to prepare for his own match.

Chris watched him leave, then looked back down at his bag. He stood there for a moment, before sighing as he continued looking for his socks.

It was the first time that whole week that Stephanie wasn't the only person on his mind.

* * *

"I'll call you tomorrow, maybe we can go out for lunch." 

"Sure, that'd be great."

"Okay then, I'll see you around." He kissed her on the cheek.

"See you around."

Stephanie watched Al walk out through the door that led to the parking lot. He had to leave, but she couldn't go with him because she still had to do a few more things for her dad. Sighing, her thoughts involuntarily went back to her earlier conversation with Trish.

He found her standing there, wondering what was going through her mind. Hoisting himself up on top of a table about a foot behind her, he blew a large bubble with the gum he was chewing. It popped, startling her. She whirled around, not surprised to find him there. He grinned impishly and waved at her.

"How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?"

"Lost count. How can I resist sneaking up on you, Princess?"

"Hmph." She said, as she started walking back towards her dressing room. He hopped down off the table and grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Hey, hang on a sec there, Speed Racer."

"What is it?"

"You're not still mad about last week, are you?" He asked, looking at her curiously. She pulled her arm out of his grip.

"No, I'm not."

"You're not acting like you're it. What's wrong?"

"Nothing Jericho, geez, leave me alone already! God, you're always hounding me, every single week!"

"Whoa, what's your problem?" He asked, amusement in his eyes. "You mad because your boy toy's gone?"

She shook her head, suddenly disgusted by him. He seemed so fake to her now, even though she didn't believe what Trish had said, it didn't change the new light she had shed on him. She looked at him, his arrogant expression ever-present, his championship belt on one shoulder, a huge chip on the other.

"Chris," She started, choosing her words carefully. "I talked to Trish earlier.." She noted the way his eyes darkened at the mention of her name, but continued anyways, "And she had some interesting things to say about you."

"As I'm sure she would. What'd she say?"

"That you're a womanizer, basically, and that you're chasing after everything in a skirt on Raw."

Chris snickered at the ridiculous statement, which unfortunately gave her the wrong impression.

"Please.. I only have eyes for you, Steph." He said charmingly as he smiled at her. Now it was her turn to snicker.

"Do you use that line on every girl you go after?" She said, before she could stop herself. He popped another bubble with his gum, his eyes narrowing.

"You didn't believe what she did, did you?" He asked slowly. Ignoring the sudden racing of her heart, she shrugged as nonchalantly as she could.

"Should I have? You tell me."

"Oh my God Stephanie, you have got to be kidding me. I can't believe you're that gullible." He said in disgust, shaking his head. "As if you don't know the history I've had with that slut."

"Well in the end, it doesn't matter if it's true or if it isn't."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I don't care who you're going after Jericho, because when it comes down to it, I have my boyfriend, and that's all that matters."

"I know you have a boyfriend, Stephanie."

"Well you don't act like you know!" She snapped. "Why don't you just accept the fact that I'm with Al, and stop hitting on me every week, because it's never gonna happen Chris! There will _never _be _anything _between us, why can't you get that through your thick skull!"

She regretted the words the instant they were uttered, but she couldn't take them back. That didn't stop her from wishing though, especially when she saw the warm and teasing look in his eyes disappear after hearing her words.

He was hurt; he'd never admit it, not to anyone, not for all the money in the world, but there it was. He was hurt. A simple but rather hard fact for him to accept, he immediately went into defense mode.

"You know Stephanie, you're right.. I never realized just how low my standards were, to resort to chasing after street trash like yourself." He said snidely, popping his gum again. She winced at his change of tone, but the overwhelming need to one-up him had never left either.

"I'm going to tell my boyfriend you said that."

"Oh, you do that, I'll be sure to knock his head off next time. I almost feel bad for him.. having to share you with the rest of the locker room, must be hard to find enough time for him, huh?"

"You ass."

"Keep them customers coming baby, but I'm not going to be one of them."

"I can't believe I was starting to think of you as a friend."

"You can't believe that? _I _can't believe I was actually _considering _seeing you in any other way other than the trash-bag ho I've always seen you as."

_What in the hell is going on? _Stephanie wondered, bewildered as to how they had ended up trading insults again. She angrily fought back the tears that threatened to start blurring her vision. She _knew _she had struck a nerve with what she said, but damn..

"I hate you." She stated, her voice low.

"Oh look at me, I'm going to go run in a hole now and hide. Whatever, Stephanie.. been nice talking to you."

"Go to hell."

"I'll meet you there."

* * *

"Ouch, an interjection. Used to express sudden pain." 

"Now is _not_ the time."

"Sorry," Randy said, closing his dictionary as he held an ice pack to the back of his head. "Just trying to lighten the mood. So what happened after that?"

"Nothing.. I ended up walking away."

"So.. what are you going to do now?"

"What do you want me to do, Rundo? She's obviously too blinded by Al to see that she's too good for him, so why should I bother? This whole thing has been a waste of my time."

Randy nodded, before frowning. "Wait a sec, you're not giving up, are you?"

Chris scowled. He had never given up anything in his entire life. But he couldn't see how they could even hold a civil conversation again, so he just shrugged.

"You can't just let that moron win!" Randy suddenly cried out, startling Chris. "You're Chris Jericho! What the hell is wrong with you? Chris Jericho doesn't _quit! _You shouldn't even know _how _to quit!"

"Touching, kid." Chris snorted. "Very touching. But there's really no way this can work out. She's not going to go out with me, she made that fact painfully clear tonight." He spat out bitterly, his scowl growing.

_I should have never bothered in the first place._

"What happened to one kiss, one date?"

"You can forget about that because it's not happening."

"But you were so close!"

"Close to what, Orton? Huh? Do tell, I see no progress right now, now do I?" Chris snarled. "Just drop it kid.. forget about it."

"But.. what happened to your ultimate plan?" He threw in, not knowing what else to say. Chris blinked, having forgotten about that.

"Hmm.." He rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "I don't know Rundo.. it's such a long shot right now."

"Anything's better than nothing.. besides, it's not like you have much to lose." Randy added.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Fine kid.. I'll try it, but you're going to help me, damn it. And if _this_ doesn't work, then I'm _really_ giving up."

"It better be good then."


	8. Deal For A Deal

Again, I don't own anything.. thank you guys for the reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. :)

* * *

The sun was shining. Businesses were booming. Kids were playing. Vince was firing some poor worker somewhere. All in all, it seemed like a normal day. 

However, Randy was quickly realizing that no day spent with Chris Jericho could possibly be coined as a "normal day".

"I'm a legend killer!"

"I'm the king of the world!"

"I'm a third-generation superstar!"

"I'm a seven-time Intercontinental champion!"

"I'm the youngest-ever World Heavyweight champion!"

"I'm the first-ever Undisputed champion!"

"At least I'm in main events!"

"Yeah, well who's beaten Triple H?!"

"Oh yeah, well -- wait a minute... you've never beaten Triple H either!"

"Check your sources again junior! I beat him to win that title one time!"

"... THAT WAS LIKE FOUR YEARS AGO!!"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"

"You dress like someone who's stuck in the 70's!"

"I was kicking ass in the ring while you were still trying to hit puberty!"

"Yeah, well your _plan _to get Stephanie sucks!"

"Well it's not like you can think of a better one!"

They both fell silent as they glared at each other. Randy finally sighed.

"Honestly Jericho, for going on and on about your _ultimate _plan, this plan is just pretty pathetic."

"Like I said kid, it's not like you have any better ideas." Chris mumbled.

"I mean, damn! Talk about _last _resorts.. this is just extreme. I think you're going to really piss her off, even more than she already is.. which isn't really smart."

"She'll only get pissed if we mess up."

"Looking at our luck, it wouldn't surprise me if we slipped.. I personally don't like your plan."

"Yeah, well I don't like your ring music and you don't hear me complaining!"

Randy bit his lip, unwilling to take the bait and initiate yet another banter between the two.

"Well, we can work with your plan.. tweak it up a bit and iron things out."

"I'm open for any and all suggestions... assclown."

"Jackass." The younger man mumbled under his breath, but the comment was heard nonetheless.

"RUNDO, I'M THE FIRST EVER --"

"Alright alright, just shut up! Damn, on and on, you talk more than Hunter."

"I'll let that slide this one time, only because I'm feeling nice."

"And because I'm the only person actually willing to help you with this plan."

"That too."

* * *

**Three Hours Later..**

Stephanie felt something was different when she entered her hotel room, but couldn't place what it was. She entered cautiously, wondering if maybe Al was there, since she had given him a spare key and all. She paused and listened, but heard nothing.

"Anyone here?"

She got no answer. She sighed, not looking forward to the show that night (and seeing a certain Canadian after the week before wasn't exactly going to be a thrill either). Tossing her purse on the nice, leather sofa in the living room, she made her way into her bedroom.

_Might as well get some sleep before the show, _she thought to herself.

* * *

_"I cannot believe I am doing this.." _Randy grit his teeth as he tried to ignore the embarassment of the situation he currently found himself in. 

"Oh quit your whining Rundo, damn, I swear you must've been a female in your past life." Chris growled, shaking his head.

"You're not the one with a wrestler on your shoulders that's over two hundred pounds!"

"Suck it up kid, this was your idea."

"No, going _after _Stephanie was my idea, but this, this is _your _plan!"

_"But this is your plan."_ Chris said, mocking him under his breath. "Whine, whine, whine. Shall I break out with the violins?"

"Just get on with it already!" Randy hissed. They hadn't even _begun _the actual plan yet, and he was already working out a sweat. The _genius _plan (he questioned the genius part) up until that point, had comprised of the following:

1. Getting Randy to find out exactly which room the youngest McMahon was in. This was by far the easiest part, as it only took some flirting and a wink for him to get the young female receptionist to not only give him the room number, but also a copy of the key to the room.

2. After finding out which room she was in, the next task was to find out which window belonged to her room. Luckily for them, she was only on the second floor. After a half-hour of miscommunication, they finally got it right.

3. The next task was to fix the obvious height difference. Chris saw it as a sign from above when he found out that they could do all of this from behind the hotel, away from the public eye, since almost no one walked around the back. Dragging a dumpster over hadn't done the trick - Chris was still short a good foot from the window ledge (much to Randy's amusement).

Chris' response was to make Randy give him that extra foot, by making the younger (and more conveniently, _taller_) man hold him up on his shoulders while standing on the dumpster, which is where they now found themselves.

As if he didn't have a care in the world, Chris slowly played around with the digital camera in his hands, ignoring the fact that Randy was supporting his weight underneath him. He finally turned the flash off and peeked into Stephanie's window. He could only see a few inches, maybe four...

_Thank God for zoom.._

_"Is she there yet?" _Randy mumbled.

"Patience is a virtue, Rundo."

"You are _far _from being the most patient man I know!"

"Shhh, shhh, shut up, I think I heard something."

* * *

Stephanie yawned as she walked into her bedroom. The schedule was starting to get to her. She hadn't had decent sleep all week, and only had some odd hours before she had to leave to be on time at the show. Letting her hair down, she massaged her temples to ease the beginning of a headache that she knew was coming. She then took off her business jacket, and began unbottoning her shirt.

* * *

"What is she doing?" Randy whispered. He got no response, and didn't want to risk trying to look up at the Canadian sitting on his shoulders, lest they both topple off the dumpster altogether. "Chris?" 

"Mhmm.." The older man answered, sounding dazed.

_".. Jericho! Don't tell me that you're getting a view on Stephanie!"_

_".. I am not you perv! _You know kid, you're always thinking -- aw man, she turned _around.."_

"And you call _me_ the perv.."

* * *

Stephanie slipped her extra large WWE t-shirt on, before looking over her shoulder. She could have _sworn _she had heard something.. frowning, she let her hair fall out freely along her shoulders. She was almost ready to take her nap, but one thing was missing.. 

She decided to get comfortable.

She just didn't know that she would feel the effect of that decision for many days to come.

* * *

_"Finally! _My shoulders were starting to kill me back there."  
  
"Yeah yeah, put a sock in it already. I've been listening to you whine and complain for the past couple of hours!" 

"I listen to you whine and complain all the time!"

"Yes well, that's different."

"Whatever." Randy rolled his eyes as he rubbed his shoulder. "What's the next part?"

"Where it gets good, my friend." Chris said, smirking. "She won't know what hit her."

* * *

**Later That Night..**

"Chris, what a surprise."

"Trish, thanks, now I can officially have a bad day."

He gave her a fake smile and then went to walk around her, his bags slung over one shoulder. She reached out though and grabbed his arm, not willing to let him go that easily. He sighed loudly as he turned to look back at her.

"What is it?" He snapped. She was making him lose precious time towards his plan.

Little did he know that she had a plan of her own.

"What, I can't talk to you now?" She asked with a pout, knowing that that almost always softened him up.

He looked at her suspiciously, knowing something was up. "Trish, I've got things to do, so if you don't mind --"

She stepped in front of him when he tried to side-step, making him groan impatiently.

"I just wanted to let you know that you have a tag team match tonight."

"Earth-shattering news. Can I go now?"

"Just one more thing, one more thing Chris." She said, stopping him again. He gave her an irritated look, and so she leaned in closer to him, resting her hands on his chest. "I just never got the chance to apologize for what happened at Wrestlemania.."

"And if you plan to do it now that it's six months after that fact, then I don't want to hear it." He stated, sneering as he shoved her hands off him. She frowned and watched him start to walk away, before she called out to him again.

"She's never going to say yes Chris! Why don't you just give it up?"

He stopped walking, making her smirk. He snickered to himself, not knowing how she knew, and not really caring either. He _was _going to make Stephanie his, and he didn't care _who _didn't like it - he cared as much for Trish as he did for Al, and that was really saying something.

He looked over his shoulder at her, and found to his immense satisfaction that the feelings that used to overtake him at the very sight of her were gone. His smirk crept back at that; he knew he had their little game won.

"I'll see you around, _Trash _Stratus." He called out over his shoulder, ignoring the glare that she was giving him as he went about finding his locker room for the evening.

After all, he had bigger fish to fry.

* * *

"Steph, can I talk to you?" 

"Is it important?"

"Well to me it is."

"Come in."

He stepped into the dressing room as she finished jotting down notes that she was supposed to turn in to Bischoff later on, after the show. She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"What can I do for you, Randy?"

"Well, I was wondering exactly what I have to do to get a title shot against Triple H. I would ask him but he loves to beat around the bush, and I just figured you'd be the best person to answer my question."  
  
"Let me guess, Bischoff isn't here, right?" She asked, laughing. He just smirked.

"Right.. the lazy bastard."

"Well Randy, I'll put in a word for you, since I do have a bit of say as to who the fans can pick from to go against Hunter for the title."

"Oh that's cool, thanks Steph."

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, here," She said, handing him a small pack of papers. "Those are all the nuts and bolts for Taboo Tuesday, you may want to look it over."

"I will, thanks a lot." He said, looking over some of the papers as he turned to leave. He was almost out the door when she called out to him.

She bit her lip as he looked back at her curiously, but then quickly regained her McMahon composure.

"Ahem.." She cleared her throat, and put on her business face. "I just wanted to remind you to please tell your friend Chris that he's going to be in a tag team match tonight."

"I think he knows already, but I'll tell him just in case. Why, don't want to talk to him?"

"No, I don't. Thanks, Randy."

"No problem."

* * *

"Tell me again why _you're _being nominated into this Taboo Tuesday thing but _I'm _not?" 

"I was telling you earlier today, that I'm just better all-around."

"Uh huh.. they just don't want me to take over the sport, because if I got the chance to face The Nose, I'd become a double champion. As a matter of fact, that's probably why --"

"Hate to interrupt your little spiel there Chris, before you even get a chance to get started," Randy said, cutting in, "But I think you should look at this."

He handed Chris an extra sheet that was in the packet that Stephanie had given him. It was the one paper that stuck out, and rightfully so.

"Rundo, where did you get this?" Chris asked calmly after having looked over the paper. The ecstatic look in his eyes gave it all away though - he looked like a little kid who had just gotten his favorite toy, but was trying to be _cool _and not get overly excited.

"She must've given it to me on accident. She wasn't really looking at the papers when she grabbed them, and it was the last one, so.. it looks pretty important, maybe we should give it back." Chris gave him a look like he had a cabbage for a head. "Or uh.. maybe not?"

"I like the second idea." The Canadian said, smirking as he folded the sheet carefully and walked over to put it in his gym bag, right next to his handy digital camera.

"But Chris, that thing looked important."

"Finders keepers, losers weepers, kid. Don't worry though, this may be the break we needed."

* * *

If it wasn't Trish that always on his case, it was Christian. It was getting to be really annoying too. So much in fact, that Chris was almost glad that Shawn was the one to get pinned, even though it cost him the match too. 

_Hopefully now Christian will buzz off so I can focus on bigger and better things._

He groaned loudly when he saw Al waiting in the back, no doubt for his little "friends". Chris walked right past him, ignoring the look he was getting from Al. Unfortunately, the moron's eye had improved, he noted to himself bitterly.

Al watched the Canadian stalk right past him, shaking his head. He looked behind him, where he was joined by the rest of the group consisting of Trish, Christian, and Tyson.

"He's an ass." Trish mumbled, breaking their silence as they all watched Chris disappear down one of the hallways.

"We gotta stick to the plan though."

* * *

"Steph, babe, how are you?" 

"Oh my God.. _Al.. I am about to have a heart attack."_

"Why?" He asked, concern crossing his features as he stepped into her dressing room. "What's the matter? You okay?"

He raised an eyebrow, puzzled as he approached her desk. She was frantically looking through all her paperwork, tossing the unnecessary sheets to the side. Needless to say, she was making a huge mess.

"Stephanie?"

"You have GOT to be KIDDING ME!!"

"Did you lose something?"

"Yes I lost something, what kind of stupid question is that?!" She growled, before collapsing in her leather chair and covered her face with her hands, trying not to panic.

_How could I have lost that paper?  
It had the final lists of all the contracts!  
My dad wants it by tonight!  
Oh my God, I can't BELIEVE I lost it!  
It was RIGHT on my desk, right under those papers for Taboo Tuesday!  
Oh man, now what am I going to do?!  
  
_"Babe, tell me what you lost, I'll help you look for it."  
  
_.. Wait a second.  
  
_"It has to be here somewhere.." Al said, shifting some papers around.

_It was under those papers for Taboo Tuesday...  
  
_"Is it this?" He asked, holding up a paper with matches listed on it.  
  
_I gave those papers away to Randy though.. wait.. RANDY! HE HAS TO HAVE IT!  
  
_"Or maybe it's this.." The phrase died on Al's lips as Stephanie bolted out of the dressing room.

"Well then.. never mind." He mumbled to himself.

* * *

Randy looked up as someone barged into his locker room, and was slightly surprised that it wasn't Chris, coming to whine about Shawn costing him a match. He was even more surprised to see that it was Stephanie, barging in without so much as a knock. 

"Stephanie," He greeted as he stood up slowly, having finished lacing up his wrestling boots. "What's up?"

"Randy, do you still have those papers that I gave you earlier?" She demanded. He looked at her, confused, noticing that she seemed slightly out of breath.

"Yeah, they're over there." He gestured towards his gym bag. She looked and saw the stack of papers before rushing over. He crossed his arms and watched as she flipped through the paperwork. "Did you lose something?" He asked curiously.

"It's not here," She said, groaning as she put the papers back down. "I could have _sworn.."_

"If it was with the pack of papers you gave me, then you might want to check with Chris."

She whirled back around towards him, and he was surprised at the look of mistrust in her eyes.

"Why would I want to check with him, Randy?"

"Well, I went to see him after I saw you, like you said, to tell him about his match and whatnot, and he was looking over those papers with me.. so it's possible that maybe whatever you're looking for ended up in his locker room, that's all I'm saying."

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, before finally nodding. "Fine.. I'll check with him. Thanks Randy."

"Anytime.. hope you find what you're looking for."

* * *

Stephanie was prepared to deal with him. She was a McMahon, damn it - she dealt with wrestlers all the time, this was no new territory. Straightening in posture, she knocked three times on his door. If he even so _much _as gave her an attitude, she was going to have to -- 

Her train of thought was derailed completely when he opened the door. She maintained her impeccable posture and the confident look on her face, yet could not think of anything to say.

Perhaps it was that he was only clad in a towel, still semi-wet from the shower he had obviously taken that had thrown her off..

"Steph, what a surprise.. finally come to your senses huh?" He said smugly, as he ran a hand through his damp hair.

She narrowed her eyes angrily at him. "I think Randy may have left something of importance here."

He was about to reply when she shoved her way past him (ignoring how good he smelled), and took a look around his locker room. He snickered, closed the door and locked it, before approaching her from behind.

She felt him behind her, and before she knew it, he had wrapped his arms around her, hugging her from behind. She let the contact be for a few seconds (it did feel _very _nice..), before elbowing him and getting out of his grip.

"Geez, can't even give a hug anymore these days," He mumbled, rubbing his chest as she gave him a dirty look.

"I'm in a rush Jericho, and you're holding me up."

"What is it that you're looking for? You name it Princess, and I'll provide it -- a real man, perhaps? A champion.. a champion among champions.."

She rolled her eyes and gave the room a once-over again.

"You know I have what you want, Stephanie." He said, walking over towards his gym bag. She snickered as he pulled out a towel.

"No Chris, I don't think you do. This was a waste of time." She sneered, cursing mentally for having even bothered with him. She should have known better, she thought to herself as she headed back towards the door.

"Aw, what a shame, and here I was actually thinking about giving you that list back." He said, snickering as he began towel-drying his hair. When he straightened again and got the hair out of his eyes, he saw her glaring at him.

"You have it."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"I don't have time for your stupid games Jericho, I _need _that paper! It has _very _important information on there about everyone's contracts!"

"Well then, I suggest you ask for it back in a nicer way, if you want it back _at all, _wouldn't you say so?"

"_I NEED THAT PAPER, JERICHO!" _She shrieked, making him wince.

"Steph, relax. You'll get it back.. if you give me something for it, that is." He said, with a grin.

"What do you want? And if you say sex, then so help me, I'll --"

"No no, none of that. Just one simple request, and I'll give it back to you, intact, every last name on there."

"Well hurry up, what is it?" She demanded impatiently.

"Simple.. your cell number, and a date. My reward for that bet that I _should _have won in the first place.. cheater." He said with a smirk. She stared at him, somehow knowing she shouldn't have been surprised with that answer.

"You know what?" She said, finally regaining her wits - which took some effort with him asking her out, looking as good as he was at the moment. "I absolutely _refuse _to be blackmailed into a date with you. Absolutely _refuse!_"

"Stephy, this isn't blackmail. This is a deal for a deal. You give me something I want, I give you something that you want. It's really pretty cut and dry."

"Keep that stupid contract list, I'd rather get a lecture from my dad than get blackmailed!" She kept her glare on him, annoyed even more when he laughed it off. He reached down into his bag and pulled out a digital camera with one hand, the other hand keeping his towel at a decent position.

"I'm telling you, it's not blackmail." He said, turning the camera on. She snorted and rolled her eyes as he walked towards her, scrolling through some menus.

"Oh yeah, it's a _deal for a deal. _Whatever, it's blackmail, I can't believe you -- you.. had the nerve.." Her voice trailed off as he finally found the picture he had been looking for, and had the courtesy to share with her. He smirked as she visibly paled at the sight of the picture.

"See Steph, _this_, you can call blackmail, though I personally think the term is a bit strong. You see the difference?" He said arrogantly, unable to hide the amusement from his tone. "Before it was a deal for a deal, but now, it's you either accept my offer for a date, or I get copies of this picture made and get it posted up in all the locker rooms next week on Raw."

"You wouldn't dare.."

"Oh, let me see," He said, turning the camera back around so he could look at the picture. "What have we here? Queen Bitch Stephanie McMahon sleeping with, what's this? A _stuffed dinosaur?! _And are those _Spongebob _pajama pants I see? Adorable, really.. I thought girls were more into the stuffed bear thing, you know.. when they're five."

Blushing furiously, she scowled as she stared at him, not knowing what to say. She knew he was _very _capable of going through with his threat, and the last thing she needed was Bischoff seeing a picture so.. _demeaning._

"How did you get that picture?" She forced herself to ask.

"Oh I have my sources. Personally I think you look adorable and the whole world would enjoy the picture as much as I do. Hell, maybe I can even put it on the Highlight Re --"

"_Alright! Alright!" _She said, sighing as she rubbed her temples. "If you promise me that you will _delete _that picture and not _breathe _a word of this to Al, then.. I'll go out with you." Another heavy sigh.

"Is that a deal?" He asked, his smirk growing.

"I can't believe you, Jericho.. you are the biggest ass I have ever met.. you are _blackmailing _me into a date! I just can't believe the _audacity_.."

"Like I said, blackmail is a strong word. Oh, before you leave," He walked back over to his bag as quickly as he could without dropping his towel. He looked in his bag, and pulled out the contract sheet, a magazine, and a pen. Going back to her, he handed her the list.

"Thanks," She said dryly, her blush still present as she snatched the list out of his hands. "For nothing."

"Aw that hurts.. but anyways, next week after the show?" He said, smirking excitedly. She sighed again and nodded slowly.

"Fine, after the show it is. You had BETTER delete that picture Jericho, or I swear.."

"Princess, anything for you. So then, why don't you just jot your number down for me right here?"

"Why? There's no reason for you to call me." She said, a look of disgust on her face. "I'm going to see you next week, unfortunately."

"Wow." He said, a thoughtful expression coming to his face. "I wonder what Hunter would think if he saw this picture. Somehow, I don't think he'd be surprised, since you two were married and all, but maybe he'd like to be reminded on what he's missing out on, you know, for old time's --"

She snatched the magazine and pen out of his hand, and in a clear space, furiously wrote out her cell phone number. She felt like hitting him on the head with the magazine, but decided against it as she tossed it back to him, pen and all.

"Thanks, Steph."

"Whatever."

"I thought the dinosaur was a nice touch myself."  
  
"Goodbye, Jericho."

* * *

**Five minutes later..**

"Stephanie McMahon speaking."

"Stephy baby, it's your sexy beast of a knight in shining armor."

Stephanie shot a look at Al, who was packing up all her paperwork for her as he hummed to himself. She cleared her throat, making him look back up at her. She signaled to him that she was going to step outside, and he nodded.

"What do you want?" She whispered as she stepped out of her dressing room.

"Just wanted to see if you really gave me your real number, or if you gave me a rejection hotline number or something like that." He said, laughing.

"I don't trust you enough to do something like that."

"Well, Stephanie, I just want to let you know that the things I said last week, well --"

"Don't worry about it, Chris, seriously."

"But I --"

"I don't want to talk about this right now." She snapped, making him sigh.

"Fine, fine.." He said, before snickering.

"What?" She demanded, putting her free hand on her hip. "What's so funny?"

"You." He stated simply, amused.

"How am I funny?" She growled, making him laugh.

"So worked up over a little picture, how can you _not _be funny?" His words made her blush again as she remembered the picture.

"It's sad you have to resort to this, Christopher."

"It's even sadder that it worked!" He exclaimed, before laughing again. "But anyways, I'll see you next week."

"Yes.. unfortunately."

"Don't worry Steph, we'll have fun."

"Yay." She mumbled sarcastically. "A night out with you, how fun."

* * *

_"A night out with you?" What the hell is going on?! _

Al scowled, cursing his luck as he pressed himself closer up against the door, straining his ears to hear more. His girlfriend was _not _going to go out with that bastard! What if it got out? Oh, the humiliation.. he decided that something would have to be done.

* * *

Meanwhile, about a foot away on the other side of the door, Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you can look at it negatively all you want, but in the end, you'll be thanking me for this fantastic opportunity."

Now it was her turn to laugh. "You are serious about this, aren't you?"

"Always am when it comes to you, sweetcheeks."

"Alright well, I'm gonna go, Al's waiting on me."

"Okay, see ya next week, Princess."

"Don't remind me. Goodbye, Chris."

* * *

"You mean it actually _worked?_" 

"Hell YES it worked!" The Canadian exclaimed, clapping the younger man on the back. Randy winced at that, still sore from his match. "I got her number, _and _a date!"

"... You mean it _really _worked?"

"Yes! Stop asking already, you're sounding like a broken record. I told you the plan was flawless."

"Yeah but, isn't she pissed?"

"Oh I'm sure, but I'm going to sweep her off her feet next week.. she's going to be _mine._"

"Hey, what do I get for helping you out with all this?" Randy whined as he held an ice pack to the back of his head.

"What are you talking about? I was the one who came _up _with the plan! What did you do?"

"Uh.. how about all the _work?!_"

"Oh come on." Chris said, waving it off with his hand.  
  
"Like holding you up there because you're too short to reach the window ledge by yourself?"

"Well I had to actually _take _the picture."

"You just pressed a button!"

"It takes _skill _to take a picture Rundo, and don't you forget it!"

"Whatever," Randy groaned, feeling a headache coming on. "There's just no winning with you."

"You better believe it." Chris grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Man, I can't _wait _for next week.."

"You better not screw up, or else there went your last chance."

"Don't worry kid, I'm not planning on it."

* * *

Two hours later, four individuals were busy discussing the events of the day, in the privacy of a car outside of the hotel where Al and Stephanie were staying. 

"They're going out."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"I heard her talking on the phone with him."

"Well do you know when?"

"I'm guessing next week, because she kept telling me on the way here that she didn't want to go to the show next week."

"Are you _sure _she was talking to Jericho?"

"I don't know another Chris she would be talking to like that." Al replied in his smart-ass tone, before sighing.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to resort to Plan B." Trish said, tapping her chin in thought. The three men turned to look at her.

"What the hell is Plan B?" Tyson asked, looking confused.

"I think we should take Jericho out next week." Christian said knowingly, nodding slowly. "That'll show him, stupid show-off.. always hogging up my spotlight.." He mumbled under his breath, as Tyson and Trish rolled their eyes.

"Well, we have to do _something._ There's no way my girlfriend is going to go out with _him._"

"Alright, strategy time." Trish said, as the four began brainstorming.

* * *

**Meanwhile..**

Stephanie was getting ready to go to bed (after having made sure that all the shades were shut to her window), and was getting comfortable when her cell phone vibrated. She picked it up and saw that she had a text message. Climbing into bed, she pulled her blankets over her and decided not to bring in her cute little dinosaur with her.

_Stupid Jericho.. him and his stupid towel. _She thought to herself as she opened the text message. It was a short message, and it was from him. She read it over again, and then once more, and on she went until she had read it over at least eight times.

"Hey Princess, just wanted to say good night. Hope you're not too mad at me. Love, your sexy beast, CJ."

She sighed and held the phone close to her, thinking about Chris but wondering when Al was going to come back. She was starting to doze off when the phone vibrated again, scaring her half-to-death.

_So like him to do that too. _

"Btw Steph, kick Al to the curb. You can do better (like with me)."

She snickered at the text message, before turning off her phone altogether. She tossed it aside and decided not to wait up for Al and get some much needed rest.

She was going to need it.


	9. Back To The Drawing Board

Ick.. sorry it's taken so long. :x 

Since my lazy / busy self will probably find it extremely difficult to put up two different chapters for the two weeks I've missed.. here's one. :D

Sorry if the events seem kinda off from the actual show, I didn't watch it so I had to go off some results.. (here's hoping they were accurate!) but it actually shouldn't REALLY matter so yeah lol.

Enjoy.. I own nothing. :P

* * *

"What happened last week?" 

"You guys were acting like a bunch of idiots, and ruined the plan."

"Hey, it wasn't _my _fault okay? So I got caught up for a while there with my peeps, big whoop. Who cares?"

"You two had Jericho handed to you guys on a silver platter in that lumberjack match!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Trish said, interrupting. She looked at Al curiously. "Didn't you say that they didn't go anywhere anyways?"

"Yeah, but I have no idea why. They very well _could've, _thanks to you idiots." He mumbled.

"We _need _strategy, which we're lacking. We're all running around aimlessly trying to stop these two from going out, doing whatever we can think up on a whim, and it's not working." Christian whined.

The four sighed heavily.

"I think we may need to ask for some help." Trish said, rubbing her hands together. "And I know _just_ the person.."

* * *

**Meanwhile..**

"You know Chris, I think you're taking it too personally." Randy said, watching as Chris paced back and forth in his locker room. "She didn't blow you off."

"She blew me off." The Canadian angrily spat out. "I had my match, I _told _her I'd catch up with her, I shower, I get dressed, and where is she? Gone!"

"You probably said something wrong."

"_Said something wrong?_" Chris cried out angrily. "What kind of stupid crap is that? I _told _her to wait for me! You were there when I said it!"

"Yeah well, sometimes women are weird." Randy shrugged.

"She blew me off!"

"Have you even talked to her? Called her maybe?"

"She isn't answering!"

"I still think you might be jumping the gun."

"_NO ONE BLOWS ME OFF!" _The older man shouted, startling Randy. "Who in the hell does that woman think she is?!"

"Worse comes to worse, you can always go through with your threat." Randy said, making Chris freeze in his tracks. "What?" He asked, confused.

"Oh.. nothing." The Canadian answered quickly, and resumed his pacing - albeit faster this time. Randy looked at him curiously.

"You _said _you were willing to go through with it if push came to shove. Don't tell me you're chickening out."

"I _never _chicken out!"

"So what's the prob -"

"Damn, look at the time." Chris said, heading towards the door as Randy watched him suspiciously. "She should be here by now."

In seconds, Randy was up and grabbing the older man's arm, turning him back around to face him.

"What's your problem, junior?" Chris said angrily as he pulled his arm out of Randy's grip. "Grab me like that again and I'll introduce you to my right hook!"

"You don't have a watch on." Randy stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Thank you very much Captain Obvious, I think I can continue living now that that truth has come out. Now if you'll _excuse me.._"

"You're hiding something."

"Aw," The Canadian said in a mocking tone, "Was liddle Wandy left alone by his mama so often that he grew up to be insecure?"

"Nice try Jericho. Now spill."

"I don't have to answer to _you_. Who in the hell do you think you are?"

"I'm waiting." Randy said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, which only served to further piss off his companion.

"You have some nerve kid, you know that?"

"Hmm.. why would Chris Jericho _not _want to follow through with some good old-fashioned blackmail and reap the awards?" The younger man pondered out loud, tapping his chin with his finger.

"Do you forget who I am, Rundo? I'm the first-ever Undisputed Champion, I think I know what I'm doing!" Chris replied indignantly, growing more annoyed with each passing moment.

"Maybe.. it's because he lost his nerve." Randy said tauntingly, causing Chris' face to turn red.

"That is _not _why, you idiot!" He snarled angrily. "I acciden -- you're wasting my time!"

"What were you going to say?"

"Nothing you moron!"

"Jackass!"

"Imbecile!"

"Ego-maniac!"

Chris' snide comment was forgotten when a sudden knocking was heard. He sneered at Randy and turned to open the door, thankful for the break.

"Oh, look who finally rose from the dead."

"Ha ha, hilarious Chris." Stephanie said, removing her sunglasses and tossing her hair back over her shoulder. He raised an eyebrow, his anger for the moment temporarily subsided, as Randy appeared next to him.

"Hi Steph, how are you?" Randy asked as he smirked. "I figured I'd ask since this one has no manners."

She laughed at that. "I'm fine, and yourself?"

"Fine as always."

Chris scowled. "Come in Steph." He said, stepping back so she could walk in. Once she was inside the locker room, he shoved a surprised Randy out, and closed the door behind him.

"Hey! Asshole." Randy mumbled on the other side. Chris heard it and snickered, before turning back and facing Stephanie, who had taken a seat and was busy admiring his title belt. He leaned back against the door and crossed his arms as he watched her.

"Where the hell were you last week?" He finally asked, scowling again.

"Here at the arena, where else?" She said, giving him a look.

"We were supposed to go out after the show, and you blew me off, any of this ringing a bell?"

"You said you didn't want to go out." She said, shrugging, as he looked at her in shock.

"When the hell did I say that?"

"After your match with Hunter."

"I did _not!_"

"Oh yes you did, Chris Jericho! Don't you _dare _try to turn this around on me!"

"_I did_ _not!!"_

"You did too! _Oh Steph, I'm tired right now, so I'll catch up with you later." _She mocked.

"I meant we'd catch up _later_! Like _later that night!_"

"Well that's your fault for not being clear."

"You blew me off! _No one _blows me off!"

"Oh geez, I did not blow you off, get over yourself." She said, rolling her eyes.

"You didn't answer your phone!"

"You didn't call!"

"_I CALLED ALL WEEK!" _He cried, flailing his arms. "Look, I'll show you!" He said as he stalked over, angrily pulling out his cell phone and practically thrusting it in her face. "See? That's your number!" She looked at the phone, before evenly looking up at him.

"That's not my number.. my last number ends in a 5 and you put in 6." She stated as she snickered. He blinked and turned the phone back towards him.

He _knew _he shouldn't have listened to stupid Rundo and tried memorizing her number.

"Well.. this is beside the point anyways. We'll just have to go tonight then."

"_Tonight? _Chris, I'm not dressed to go out."

He looked her over and raised an eyebrow suggestively, smirking slowly.

"I think you look hot in anything baby.. that's why you need me."

"Can your head get any more inflated? .. You know what.. don't answer that."

"Tonight then?"

"Fine, good grief, fine, tonight we'll go out, you satisfied?"

"Partly. The rest will have to come later." He said, winking at her. She shook her head as she stood up, handing him his championship belt.

"Who are you facing tonight?"

"Oh who cares, I'm gonna win."

"Confident any?"

"What can I say? I usually get what I want."

"Is that right?" She said, her voice challenging. He smirked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

_She is so easy to rile up._

"We'll see after tonight."

* * *

"What do _you _want?" Chris demanded, visibly irritated. 

"Just wanted to tell you to keep that belt warm for me, because it's soon gonna be around _my _waist."

"You forget, assclown, that you need a vote from the _people _in order to face me."

"My peeps worship the ground I walk on! I am _so _in on Taboo Tuesday like you wouldn't believe!"

"What's the point? Do you even have one?" Chris asked in disgust. It boggled his mind to the very day how he ever got along with Christian. He was too egotistical for his own good, and he liked to hide behind Tomko. He was greasy looking too; Chris was starting to wonder what kind of home Edge and Christian grew up in anyways.

"You need to watch your back Jericho. That belt is coming home to _me!_" Christian smirked as Chris rolled his eyes.

"Whatever jackass." He mumbled, before turning around and almost bumping right into Tomko. He stepped to the side and looked back and forth between them, debating on whether or not he should bolt out of there or stay and fight in case they started something.

The decision was made for him as he felt someone approach him from behind. He scowled as he caught sight of his new companion.

"Is there a problem here gentlemen? Beating on the Intercontinental champion a week before Taboo Tuesday isn't going to win you guys any votes.. you _do _realize that, right?" Randy asked slowly, as if he were speaking to small children.

"Rookie thinks he's all that just because he had a run at the belt." Christian said mockingly. "Though he only had it for like two or three weeks.. the loser."

"Yeah, well that's two or three weeks longer than your record." The young man answered arrogantly, making Chris roll his eyes.

"Why don't you guys do yourselves a favor and go get lost somewhere? You're wasting the king of the world's oxygen, but most importantly, you idiots are wasting my time." Chris said matter-of-factly.

Christian snorted but backed off, being followed by Tomko. Chris turned and walked in the opposite direction, Randy following close behind.

"So, since I just saved you from getting your ass kicked just now and at the end of the show last week, how about you spill with what you were going to tell me earlier?" Randy asked, sounding like a little kid. Chris snorted and shook his head.

"First of all, Rundo, you saved me from _nothing, _okay? I was fighting my own fights while you were wondering what high school you wanted to go to."

"Yeah, you are kinda old."

"That is the first and _last _time that you _ever.. EVER _refer to me as _old._ You got that?"

"You're just -"

"Second of all, I don't have to tell you anything that I don't want to tell you. You are on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know."

"Well Chris, let me offer you some options. You can tell me _now_ or I will annoy the living hell out of you every Monday night until you retire or give in and tell me. Whichever comes first."

"I have amazing self-control. If I don't want you to get on my nerves, then you won't."

"This book would beg to disagree." Randy said, handing him a book that up until then, Chris hadn't noticed. He stopped walking as he snatched the book out of Randy's hands.

"What the hell is this?"

On the cover was a taped picture of him back when he was Undisputed Champion, one belt over each shoulder.

Underneath it read: _An Idiot's Guide To Pissing Off (Former) Undisputed Champions (only recommended if you are a fast runner)._

"So," Randy said, snatching the book back before Chris could open it, "Spill."

"Where did you get that?"

"E-bay and bored teenagers." He said smirking. "You'd be amazed.. so are you going to tell me or not?"

"There's nothing to tell!"

Randy shook his head and opened up the sketchbook-turned-guide. Amusement immediately crossed his features at the first question raised.

"Chris, the whole world wants to know.. why _is _it that you can never beat Triple H?"

"I _have _beaten him!" The Canadian snarled angrily.

"It has here a list of all the times you lost to him. Shall I begin reading it? Or maybe the fans would love hearing it more.."

"Alright, alright.. fine. I'll tell you, geez.. always have to use The Nose against me.. talk about low."

* * *

"You know Stephanie, I was thinking. Since we're here in the UK and all, how about we go out after the show for a night out on the town? It'll be fun, just me and you." 

"Sorry Al, I can't tonight. I have plans." She answered, busy looking over Edge's contract. She was hoping to find a clause that said he could get a rematch for his forfeited title, just so she could unleash that one on Chris. His face would be priceless..

"You're not even listening to me."

"Oh, sorry babe." She said, finally looking up at him. "What were you saying?"

"I asked you where exactly you plan on going tonight."

"I'm going out to dinner with a friend."

"Who?"

"Does it matter?" She shot back.

"Yes, it does matter to me who my girlfriend is going out with, as a matter of fact, and it matters that she'd rather go with him or her instead of me."

"Oh God, it's only one night, relax." She said, looking back at her work.

He was about to say something when a shout came from the hallways.

_"YOU WHAT?!"_

It sounded faint, but still loud enough for them to hear it from where they were.

"What the hell was that?" Al asked, frowning as he tried to place the voice.  
  
"Sounded like Randy." She said, sighing as she got to the end of Edge's contract, with no luck. "Anyways, you need to lighten up."

"Can I at least know who you're going out with?"

She took a deep breath and looked up at him. "I'm going out with Chris tonight. Satisfied?"

".. Why?"

"I can go out with whoever I want to, that's why. You're starting to piss me off." She said warningly.

"You're not even going to reconsider?"

"I sort of owe it to him."

* * *

"After _all _that work.. I can't believe this!" Randy groaned. 

"It was a mistake, alright? I didn't mean to delete it, it just happened."

"How in the hell could you _delete _the pictures?"

"I hit the wrong button!" Chris snarled, running a hand through his hair. "And then they were gone!"

"You idiot." Randy mumbled. Chris heard him and scowled, but didn't say anything. "Now what are you going to do?"

"Nothing.. what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?"

"I guess so.. you better hope she doesn't back out."

"Nah, she won't. Least I hope she doesn't. She _did _blow me off last week.."

"Here we go.." Randy said, rolling his eyes.

"Well she did Rundo, you saw it yourself."

"I don't know Chris, but I'm scheduled for some ring time up next. Gotta make my presence felt."

"So what are you waiting for?"

* * *

**Meanwhile..**

"Are you _sure _that's his car?"

"Well the plates say _Y2J Rulz_. So I'm _pretty _sure it's his."

"But wouldn't it be just a rental? Maybe that's just a big fan of his."

"No, he always puts those plates on, even on his rentals. It's just his thing. He likes other people knowing it's him behind the wheel. Trust me, I know, we traveled together for a while."

"Well let's get to it then."

"His match is going to be coming up soon too, so we can get some payback for earlier. I'm gonna embarrass him in front of all my peeps.."

"First let's get this done, then I'll go help you solve that problem."

* * *

"Now _that _was beautiful." Trish said, laughing. 

"Did you _see _that powerbomb Batista gave him? Must've knocked his lights out." Christian smirked as he grabbed a towel.

"I bet you he's not going _anywhere _tonight."

"How much did you have to pay Batista to do that?" Al asked curiously.

"I offered him fifty bucks - he said he'd do it for free." She winked. "A little flirting never hurt matters."

"Too bad that flirting didn't work with Jericho." Christian snickered, earning a death glare from Trish.

"Let me tell you that I could have him if I wanted to. I'd just have to step up my game, that's all." She shrugged. "I had him wrapped around my finger before, you better believe I can get there again."

"Whatever Trish."

"Hey, worse comes to worse, I have a plan of my own.." She grinned with an evil glint in her eye. "Any of you boys know where Jericho's locker room is?"

* * *

"I hate Evolution." Chris groaned as Randy helped him walk back to his locker room. Randy snickered. 

"Join the club."

"Why is everyone after me? First this crap with the Intercontinental title, then Christian and Tomko, and then on top of that, Evolution."

"Led by the one man you just can't beat."

"You know what Rundo, you're getting on my damn nerves with that! You have _no _room to talk when _you _haven't even beaten Triple H, and to top it off, _AT LEAST I WAS CHAMPION FOR MORE THAN THREE WEEKS!"_

"Geez, someone's edgy. Anyways, are you still going out with Stephanie?"

"Speak of the devil." Chris said, removing his arm from over Randy's shoulders as he caught sight of the youngest McMahon waiting for him outside of his locker room.

"Devil huh? Is that what you think of me?" She asked as he approached her. He just gave her a smirk.  
  
"It's about time the truth came out, Princess." He said, winking at her as he entered his dressing room. Stephanie followed him but Randy stayed at the doorframe.

"So I'm taking the rental then, right?"

"Yes Rundo, you take the rental, we'll call a limo and I'll catch up with you later."

"Alright, have fun." Randy said. Stephanie nodded and picked up a Raw magazine that Randy had been reading, while the young man showed his book again to Chris, who promptly gave him the finger. Randy snickered and left, closing the door behind him.

"Let me just jump into the shower real fast and we'll head out. And no, you can't join me, sorry to disappoint." Chris said, grinning impishly as she rolled her eyes. "Unless of course, you absolutely insist.."

"Get on with it Jericho."

* * *

**Fifteen minutes later..**

"Finally." She mumbled, ignoring the butterflies she was feeling at the sight of him. That man sure knew how to look good.. she quickly lowered her gaze to her magazine. "Are you ready?" She asked.

"Something wrong?" He asked, and she shook her head. "Is it something I'm wearing?" She looked up at him and slowly took him in. "Or do you just like what you see?" He said in a teasing voice.

She sneered at him. Who cared if he was dressed in a dark blue dress shirt with those jeans that fit him oh so perfectly.. he was still who he was.

_At least he's easy on the eyes._

"After you Princess." He said, smiling as he slung his bag over one shoulder and opened the door for her.

She gave him a look as she stepped out, with him following closely behind her. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, then waited for someone to answer.

"Who are you calling now? Your other girlfriends to cancel?"

He snickered. "Yes, hit it right on the head. Gotta make room for you on the busy schedule.. hi this is Chris Jericho, I called earlier.. yes, the one that called you a jackass.. that's right junior, you send that limo right on over now. Thanks."

"You called _who _a jackass?" Stephanie asked after he hung up.

"The idiot that works there. He said they didn't send out limos at this hour, and I told him that he was going to have to make an exception for me because I'm not just anybody. But I'm sure you know that." He said, opening the exit doors for her leading out into the parking lot.

"So we're just going to wait here for these people to show up?"

"Too much for the Princess to handle?"

"This whole night is going to be too much for me to handle."

"So you're saying I'm too much to handle? I could've told you that one." He smirked and dropped his bag on the ground, crossing his arms.

"You are something else." She said, shaking her head. She sighed as they stood in silence for a few moments. He was content with checking her out and making a move later, but she was getting bored. Bad things happen when a McMahon gets bored, because that's when ideas start being made.

He watched her grow frustrated, praising himself for being able to read her (although it was so obvious that a little kid could've figured it out).

"You bored?"

"Yes!" She snapped, her back to him. "What kind of stupid question is that? We're just standing here! You could've called them sooner."

"If you're going to be bitchy all night, it's gonna be a long night Princess."

She turned and went to walk on over and smack the taste out of his mouth (she couldn't believe the _audacity _of the man), but she didn't see his gym bag that was in the way - she shrieked as she lost her balance, and fall she did.

Right into his arms.

"Hey there miss, watch where you're going." She raised her head and looked over her shoulder at the bag, then whirled back around towards him, accusation in her eyes. He just grinned. "Hey, you said you were bored, right?"

"And you try to have me break my face because of it? How thoughtful." She responded sarcastically. "You have a sick sense of --"

His fingers brushing the hair out of her face made her suddenly lose track of thought, to his hearing's relief. He let his fingers gently trail the side of her face.

"If I were to kiss you right now, what would you do?" He asked quietly as he pulled her tighter against him.

".. Chris Jericho, don't you _dare.. _if you so much as even _think _about it, I swear, I'm going to_ --_"

"Sue me? Go ahead."

His lips then suddenly came down over hers, silencing her prepared response. The sudden and harsh contact made her squirm against him, hitting him on the chest with the bottom of her fists. He didn't budge an inch, nor did he stop. He strategically moved his hand that was on her back low and then slightly up her shirt, teasing the skin. She gasped at the contact, inadvertently giving him full entry into her mouth.

It was not their first kiss.

But it was definitely their best.

She only meant to kiss him back briefly, enough to distract him long enough to nail him with a low blow (she had learned _something _from Hunter). But once she started to, her heartbeat felt like it was in overdrive, and her plan was quickly forgotten. Without realizing or thinking about what she was doing (and probably not knowing what an _Al _was if she was asked), she wrapped her arms around his neck, twirling his hair in her fingers. She could feel him trying to smirk while he kissed her senseless, could practically feel his arrogance radiating as he held her even tighter.

And for once, she didn't care.

* * *

**Meanwhile..**

"What do you _mean_ he's gone?!"

"He's gone dude. I think they left together."

"But didn't you guys take care of the car?"

"We did, but maybe they swapped with someone or something, who knows."

"Well, where's Stephanie?"

"She left! She was supposed to wait for me to get back but she just up and left!"

Silence fell among the four.

"Damn it." Trish said, sighing. "They're together then."

"They're probably long gone." Al said dejectedly.

"Well let's go out into the parking lot and see if his car's still there." Christian suggested. "It might be, who knows? Did you try calling her?"

"Got her voicemail." He sighed heavily, as they all started walking towards the parking lot. "I really didn't want them to go out. I don't trust him."

"Who does?" Christian asked, shrugging.

"Stephanie." He mumbled, clenching his fists.

"Guys," Trish said, suddenly stopping them. "I have an idea."

* * *

Chris finally pulled away, needing a chance to breathe. He snickered at the dazed look on her face. 

"I could get used to that." He said, catching his breath, before smirking. "Earth to Stephanie." He tapped her nose with his finger. "Wake up, Princess."

That snapped her out of it. She scowled at him and swatted his finger away.

"I can't believe you did that." She said, wiping her lips. He burst out laughing, wrapping his arms once again around her waist.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, you heard me." She was trying to sound confident, but the way he was holding her combined with his kiss was making her falter.

"But you kissed me back." He leaned in and teased her with another kiss. "I know you can't get enough of me baby. Vitamin C is good for the soul.."

"Oh God, and I thought my dad was the most egotistical man I ever knew." She rolled her eyes, then noticed him wincing. "What's wrong?"

"You compared me to your dad. Talk about a blow."

"I'd give you a compliment, but if I make your ego any bigger, your head might explode."

"How about leaving that assclown Al and going with a real man?"

"Like yourself?" She said sarcastically.

"Hey, you're in _my _arms right now.. and that's half the battle Princess. You know you want to.." He said, leaning in again.

"Chris, I don't think --"

He cut her off yet again with another kiss, less forcefully this time. She pushed against his chest in protest, but not enough to actually make a difference since she was kissing him back. He was starting to deepen their kiss when someone cleared his throat. Assuming it was the limo driver, Chris pulled away and turned around.

"It's about... time." He said, surprised as he saw Al standing there. And boy was the man fuming.

"Oh my God," Stephanie started, catching sight of Al, her hand on her forehead. "Al, I can --"

"Explain?" He cut in, shaking his head in disbelief. "Stephanie, how could you?"

"Oh cut the crap." Chris said, rolling his eyes while Stephanie remained at a loss for words. "Let's make this real simple, right here, right now."

"I ought to kick your ass Jericho.." Al said, clenching his fists.

"Take a shot junior.. I'll give you another black eye." Chris said arrogantly. "In any case, I have an idea."

"Like any idea you come up with is good."

"Hey hey hey, you're talking to the genius who came up with the theory for Taboo Tuesday Alice! At least I _have _ideas.. now then, it's really simple."

"Chris, what are you doing?" Stephanie demanded, exasperated as he stepped up to Al, who immediately tensed. Chris rolled his eyes.

"I'm not gonna do anything to you assclown." He said as he stood next to Al. He crossed his arms and looked back at Stephanie. "Alright Princess.. choose."

".. _Excuse _me? Choose?"

"Yes.. this moron right here, or me. Right now, one or the other."

Al shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, while Chris remained calmly collected as he watched Stephanie. He shrugged arrogantly, before running a hand through his loose hair.

"I honestly don't think there's competition." He said, sneering at Al.

"Stephanie, just say me and let's go." Al said, sighing. "It was just a kiss with him, come on, what could it have really meant."

"Hey junior, that was the best kiss of her life. You can't do it like I can buddy, I'm the king of the world!"

"Whatever Jericho." Al said, imitating him as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I can't believe you're making me choose.." Stephanie said, sighing heavily.

"I can't believe you're actually having _doubts_." Chris said, raising an eyebrow.

Stephanie shook her head, rubbing the back of her neck as she looked at them both. There was Al, business-like, cut and clean, the epitome of what the McMahons were all about. Then there was Chris, calm, cool, and arrogant, with that smirk that always gave her butterflies.

Al was more respectable and down-to-Earth than Chris.

But damn, Chris sure knew how to kiss..

"Chris, I finally found you!" A voice cried out from behind, interrupting her train of thought. Chris turned, bewildered as Trish Stratus stalked right up to him.

"What do you want, _Trash Stratus? _We're in the middle of an extremely important decision!"

"You forgot these from last week."

"You know, if you have nothing important to say, then why don't you go.." The words died on his lips as she held out a pair of boxers out in front of her.

"I washed these for you, but goodness Christopher, next time you decide to stay a night with me, please remember to take all your clothes in the morning."

Chris stared dumbfounded, at a loss for words. He turned back to Stephanie and forced himself to speak, while Al snickered.

"I have _no _idea what she's talking about Stephanie, seriously.. I think she's gone crazy."

Stephanie looked at him blankly. "Are those yours?"

"They are, look, they have his name on the back." Trish said, before tossing them back to Chris. "Sweetie, you're always welcome in the hotel room, just clean up after yourself, okay baby?" Before he had a chance to digest what was happening, she kissed him on the cheek. He gave her a look of disgust.

"Is that why you said you were too tired to go out last week?" Stephanie asked evenly.

"No, no, _hell _no! Steph, just ignore her okay, I was _not _with her last week, and I don't know _how _she got my boxers but we haven't done anything! She probably got them from the last guy she slept with.."

"Does _this _look familiar to you, Chris?" Trish said, twirling a coin in her hand. "It's that Canadian dollar you made that bet with Christian with. Looks like you won huh?"

"Let's go, Al." Stephanie said, sighing. Chris sneered at Trish before going up to Stephanie, grabbing her arm.

"Stephanie, why would I do something like that? Don't you see you're the only one I'm going for right now? Come on, if you think about it, it doesn't make sense." He tried to reason.

"Get your hands off my girlfriend, Jericho. Go back with your little slut over there, I'm sure you two will get along just nicely." Al said, stepping forth and taking Stephanie's hand. She gave Chris a semi-disappointed look and pulled her arm out of his grip.

"It's _not _true Steph, you gotta believe me."

"Oh Christopher, why are you denying what we had? Why be so ashamed? Let's showcase it baby." Trish said, trying to link her arm with his. He pulled away in disgust.

"Don't touch me, with your dirty ass self."

"You know, it's always something with you Chris." Stephanie said, as she turned and walked away with Al. Chris growled and went to follow her, before Trish grabbed his arm.

"You shouldn't, not right now.. she'll be too pissed."

She was expecting him to mope or ignore her and go after Stephanie anyways; she wasn't expecting him to whirl around and glare at her. Trish backed up as he stalked towards her.

"Nice timing you have there, real smart. What exactly are you up to, Trish? We both know you just told Stephanie a lie so she wouldn't choose me over Al, so spill." He tossed her back the boxers. "Keep those as a souvenir of what's never gonna happen, sweetcheeks. I don't even want to know how you got them, but Vitamin C is off limits to you."

"I just found them and decided to give them back. Since you three were having a little meeting, I felt like playing around. Is that such a crime?"

"If you were a man.. I would be strangling you right now. You have _no _idea what you just cost me!" He snarled, as he picked his bag back up. He proceeded to ignore her as he marched back into the building. There were only two people who he could talk to, and he needed to really talk to someone.

Trish watched him stomp back off into the arena, and smirked to herself. She headed out to find her car, tossing the boxers into a nearby trashcan.

Her work for the night was done.

* * *

"Why must life be so difficult?" Chris mumbled as he stared up at the ceiling. "I wonder who I was in my past life to deserve this?" 

"Now you're just being pathetic." Randy said, snickering.

"She's never gonna choose me. I'm just gonna die alone and great."

"Alone and great?"

"Yes.. alone and great." He sighed heavily as he sat up on the floor, looking up at Lita. "What's your opinion on the soap opera that is my life?"

She shrugged. "I think if it's meant to be, it'll happen eventually."

"Eventually." He groaned. "Trish and the rest of them are ruining my life." With that, he laid back down on the floor. "To think this can all be traced back to a stupid bet I made last year.."

"That's what happens when you act out in stupidity.. see, it's finally catching up to you." Lita noted.

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to do anymore." He mumbled. "I mean, what do you think Li? Me and Rundo are SOL right about now."

"You two are coming at it all from the wrong angle.. the blackmail, the kiss.. the fact that it didn't work should clue you in that you're just approaching the problem wrong."

He looked over at her. "You sure you want back in on this? You don't have to help if you don't want to.."

"Are you kidding me? You two need all the help you can get."

"So you think it's still possible for him to get with Stephanie?" Randy asked doubtfully. "Trish and Al are making it pretty damn hard."

"With a woman helping you two guys out.. we have yet to get _started._"

"She would've picked me too. I know it, I could see it. Besides, after _that _kiss.. anyone would pick me." Chris said smugly.

"You know, it is a bit odd if you think about it." Lita said thoughtfully.

"What is?" Randy and Chris asked at the same time.

"Trish and the rest of them. They either have the worst timing to stick their noses in, or they're all up to something."

"Please," The Canadian said, waving it off. "They're not _that _smart."

"Well, you never know.. that's what I said about Evolution and look what happened." Randy noted bitterly.

"No one's fault but your own, kid." Chris answered.

Sudden knocking interrupted their little meeting, and they all turned to look as a technician poked his head in the door.

"Chris Jericho?"

"The one and only, what do you need, junior?"

The young man frowned a little as he looked down at his clipboard, then back at Chris, who was still laying on the floor. "Does your car have the license plates that say _Y2J Rulz_?"

"Yes, that'd be my rental. Why?"

"All the tires are flat. I was told to let you know."

Chris and Randy looked at each other and scowled at the same time. Chris looked back at the technician and waved him off, prompting the man to leave. The three remained in silence for a few moments, before Chris finally broke it.

"Stupid fans." He mumbled. "Anyways.."

"So what are we going to do?" Randy asked, crossing his arms.

".. Are you two really that dense?" Lita asked in disbelief.

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked, as Randy just gave her a confused look.

"I bet you any money that it was Trish and company who did that to your car, Chris."

"Oh come on.. why would they want to do something like that?"

"You were supposed to go out with Stephanie." Randy noted. Chris stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, before sitting up.

"I got it!"

"What?" Randy and Lita asked. He looked at them, a proud smirk on his face.

"Trish, Tomko, and Christian were all trying to stop me from going out with Stephanie." He said smugly. "Thing is, I don't know why they even care. And it might not even be true, because that would take planning."

"And organization."

"And a ring-leader."

".. Al? He seems the likely candidate but that guy's dense." Chris said, frowning.

"_All _guys are dense, dear." Lita noted.

"Hey, I resent that." Randy said, indignantly.

"I don't really believe all this. I think some fans just got to my car, or one of the thousand likely guys that I'm going to face on Taboo Tuesday."

"Don't worry, we're gonna get to the bottom of this."

"What about Stephanie?" Chris whined. Randy and Lita rolled their eyes.

"That girl's playing hard-to-get." Randy noted, shaking his head. "Something should've worked by now, come on.. no girl should be _that _hard-to-get."

"Well, we're just gonna have to start over."

"So it's back to the drawing board?" Chris sighed heavily. "What a bunch of crap."

"It's not like you have any better ideas.. your ideas suck actually, so you should listen."

"Shut up Rundo, no one asked you." The Canadian growled, before looking back at Lita. "Fine, I'm in."

"You want to get the boss's daughter to want you Chris, here's what you gotta do.."


	10. Uncomplicate My Life

I am really really sorry for not having updated this. I've wanted to but I haven't had a chance. Again, my apologies.. just know that I haven't forgotten about this story, I just don't want to sit down at any free moment and half-ass it just to get it done (I think if you guys are actually taking time to read this and give me feedback then you deserve a little more effort than that on my part) .. but anyways.. here you go. Hope you guys enjoy. :P

I own nada.. this one is from Raw on the 18th & 25th.

* * *

He looked up when he heard the door open, knowing full well she'd be coming out. He was getting good at this kind of thing. He watched her from a distance, and then to his satisfaction, she turned and started walking in his direction. Smirking, he straightened out his suit and ran his hands just over his hair to make sure he looked good.

She was so consumed in her thoughts that the sudden hand reaching out to touch her arm scared the hell out of her. She spun quickly around and relaxed as soon as she saw who it was.

"What can I do for you, Randy?" She asked, rolling her eyes.

He grinned and stood up from where he had been sitting, puffing out his chest and giving her a knowing look.

"Just wanted to talk to the Women's Champ. Is that a crime?" He asked smoothly. She raised an eyebrow, which he answered with a smile.

"I guess not." She answered cautiously, giving him a distrusting and yet interested look. She didn't know how she didn't notice (too caught up in Chris' business), but she had to admit as she gave him a once-over, Randy was kinda hot..

"Trish? Did you hear what I said?"

"Oh sorry, what'd you say?"

"I asked if maybe you wanted to get lunch sometime. I'd love to get to know a gorgeous thing like yourself better.."

Alarms went off in Trish's head, as her look of distrust slowly turned into a frown. He looked at her curiously, tilting his head slightly to one side.

"What is it? Don't be scared, I don't bite." He said reassuringly.

"You know what Randy, you may think I'm stupid, but I'm not, okay? I know you're friends with Chris Jericho, and he and I are not getting along these days.."

"This isn't about Jericho." He stated, stepping a bit closer to her. "It's about a legend killer taking a beautiful lady like yourself out to get a bite to eat."

"Randy, it doesn't change the fact that you two are friends --"

"Who says we are? I honestly can't stand him. He's too arrogant, which isn't all that bad, but he can't back it up. I'm arrogant too, but baby, I can back it up.. I can back up anything and everything I say." He added with a smirk.

"You're telling me you can't stand Chris Jericho."

"That's what I'm telling you."

"Well then.. prove it." She said, a smirk creeping on her features as she pointed over his shoulder. "There he goes, the man of the hour.. go and prove it, I want to see this."

Randy turned to see Chris walking slowly down the hallway, his head low as he read over a piece of paper. He looked back at Trish who had a daring look in her eyes. He smirked and nodded, silently accepting as he made his way over to Chris. She watched, intrigued, and decided to follow him.

"Yo Jericho." Randy said, approaching the Canadian, who looked up and nodded at him. He looked over his shoulder at Trish and groaned loudly.

"Dammit Rundo, next time you come over here, don't bring any of your groupie chicks alright? Oh wait, gosh, that's you Trish, sorry, let me rephrase that - don't bring any _trash _with you."

"You know what, I don't appreciate you talking to her like that." Randy said defensively, causing a brief look of shock to pass over the older man's face, before being replaced by a scowl.

"I'll call her anything I want. Tell me Rundo, how many definitions of _bitch _are there in your little dictionary?"

"You know something Jericho, I don't know if you've realized this or not, you probably haven't, your head is stuck so far up your ass it wouldn't surprise me." Chris' glare shifted from Trish to Randy. He narrowed his eyes at the young man, his natural warning sign. Randy didn't seem to notice this, however, and kept going. "Tonight we're teaming up, and you better do your part, Jericho. I know you can't win any matches but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt."

Trish watched, thoroughly amused as Chris gave Randy a disbelieving look, before shaking his head in disgust.

"Whatever rookie, just don't screw me over out there because I'll make you regret it. Stay out of my hair and I'll stay out of yours, and we'll be happy."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Chris sneered at Randy before walking around him, looking back down at his piece of paper. Randy watched him for a few moments, then looked back over at Trish. He smirked at her and winked.

"Did I pass your test?"

She turned and looked at Chris, before he disappeared behind one of the many corners of the hall. Frowning, she turned back towards Randy. It didn't make any sense, but Randy had been anything _but _cordial with Chris. Maybe Al was wrong about Randy after all. She looked up at him and smirked.

"Not yet, but you're getting there."

* * *

Stephanie recognized the bouquet of roses, and knew who they were from before she had even carefully examined them. Al just wasn't the type to give anyone flowers - he believed it to be a waste of time when "the flowers were going to die within the next few days anyways."

After accomodating herself, she reached out for the small piece of paper tucked inside of the bouquet. She opened it, and it read:

_Roses are red, violets are not_  
_Stephanie McMahon, you are quite hot  
__I used to call you a dirty trash bag ho  
__Used to say you could never say "no" ;)  
__But what can I say? My opinion changed  
__You're my equal on every stage  
__Kick Al to the curb already, quit wasting time  
__Cause once you have some Vitamin C, you'll be forever mine._

_C.J._

She couldn't help but grin as she read that, not doubting for an instant that he had probably taken great pride in his little poem. She shook her head, slowly folding the piece of paper in half. She held it for a moment, fingering it carefully as she fell into deep thought..

* * *

**An Hour Later..**

"So did you give it to her?"

"Well I left it there, so unless someone else took it, she should've gotten it by now."

"Hopefully Al didn't see it first.. he probably would've thrown it all out."

"I know. I don't get it Lita, I mean, do _you_ see anything attractive in him? Cause I don't see why she's with him.. I think she has bad taste in men. I mean anyone who would _willingly _go out with Trips has to."

"I don't think it's so much that she has bad taste in men, I think it's just the men she happens to like, don't like you."

"They're all just jealous of my gorgeous looks." He said smugly, making her roll her eyes.

"Whatever you say, Chris."

He was about to reaffirm his statement when the door suddenly swung open, startling both of them. He quickly stood up, on his guard since he knew there were fifteen other guys who wanted a shot at him on Taboo Tuesday.

"Relax, it's just me." Randy said, looking at him curiously. Chris eased and rolled his eyes, before sitting back down next to Lita.

"How many times have I told you not to come barging into my locker room like that?"

"You do it all the time to me!"

"Oh come on Rundo, get over yourself. It's always gotta be about you."

"Hey man, _you're_ not one to talk!"

"Guys," Lita said, cutting them off before they wasted the entire night arguing, "Knock it off already. What'd you get Randy?"

"Everything." The younger man said arrogantly. "It only took about an hour or two, but I got it."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Chris cut in. "You went to talk to Trish today, and not only did she trust you, but she also told you _everything?_"

"That's right."

"No way," The Canadian scoffed. "There's no way _Trish Stratus_ would open up to _anyone _that fast."

"Well what can I say? I have a way with women.. plus she's never had a guy like _me _go after her."

"Well, I guess you're right.. hey, wait a minute.." Chris said, scowling.

"You owe me twenty bucks, Jericho."

"Twenty bucks? For what?"

"You said I couldn't do it, and I did it, and you put twenty bucks on the line.. so pay up."

"I wasn't serious, dumbass! I was saying it to make a point! Look at what it did to you, it _inspired _you to do it right."

"Whatever." Randy said, shaking his head. "Well, you guys want to hear what I found out or what?"

"Hmmm." Lita said, looking at Chris as she tapped her chin. "I don't know, do we?"

"I don't know." The older man said, a blank look on his face. "He might be making everything up. Why would I want to know what that group is really up to? They've only screwed over my chances with Stephanie every single time."

"You guys suck." Randy said, scowling, and turned to leave.

"Junior you better sit your ass down and tell us everything she told you!" Chris shouted, glaring at Randy who met his gaze with a smirk.

"And here I thought you'd never ask."

* * *

"Dude, you're always getting clocked by Batista."

"Shut up." Chris groaned, covering his eyes with one hand while Randy held onto his other arm as the two walked backstage after their match. "Where the hell were you anyways?"

"I was on the outside."

"Nice place to be." The Canadian mumbled sarcastically.

"Chris?"

He lowered his hand to see Stephanie standing in front of him, then nodded for Randy to let go. The younger man smiled and nodded to the younger McMahon, before turning and walking away.

Not without some backward glances, of course.

Chris and Stephanie stood there for a few moments, an awkward silence between them. She was waiting for him to make one of his smart comments, but when it never came, she took the initiative.

"So.. are you okay? I saw you take another one of those shots from Batista."

"I'll live." He said evenly, rubbing the back of his head.

"That's good."

"Yeah."

"Got your flowers and the poem.."

"I'm glad."

Another awkward silence.

"So.." They said at the same time. She forced a laugh while he looked down, suddenly finding the floor very intriguing. Stephanie sighed.

"I'm sorry Chris." She said, making him look up.

"About what?"

"Last week."

He just shrugged, making her narrow her eyes at him.

"Don't you care?" She demanded, trying not to get frustrated with him. He matched her gaze and frowned a little.

"Maybe I should be asking you that question."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't know what you want. All you know how to do is play games." He stated calmly.

"That is _not _true! I do know what I want, and I _do NOT _play games with people."

"So I guess I'm the special exception, huh? How flattering." He sneered, then turned and started walking away. She watched him in shock, and as much as she wanted to drop it, she couldn't.

He heard her coming, and couldn't help but smirk. He took a deep breath as he stopped walking, running a hand through his hair and wiping the smirk off his face, replacing it with an even look as he turned to face her.

"Forgot something?"

"What is your problem, Chris Jericho? I'm trying to be cordial, and this is the attitude you're giving me? You have some nerve --"

"Let me stop you right there Princess." He said, taking a step towards her. "First of all, I've made it very.. _very _clear what I wanted. But you want to dance around it, and then pin it all back on me? Let's get one thing straight, sweetcheeks. If I knew you were a lost cause, I wouldn't be trying."

"I absolutely _hate _when you look at me like some prize you can just win! What is it that you want, Jericho? You want to show me off to your friends, show them your latest catch? Is that why you've been --"

She squealed as he grabbed her around the waist and practically hauled her against him. He leaned in like he was going to kiss her, but stopped with only centimeters between their lips. His smirk crept back on his face as she glared at him.

"What I _want _is for you to just admit that you want me. Uncomplicate my life and just admit it. You want me.." He said, lowering his gaze to her lips.

"Chris," She said, looking around as people walked past. "Not here."

He raised his eyebrow. "I've kissed you in front of millions, I don't think they'd mind much _here."_

"Well that depends on who you ask, now doesn't it?" An irritated voice said behind him.

"You know something," Chris said, letting go of Stephanie, who frowned at him. He turned and looked at Al knowingly. "You have some pretty damn good timing."

"I do, huh?" Al said sarcastically, walking purposely around him to where Stephanie was standing and wrapping his arm around her waist. "I must say Jericho, maybe Batista knocked you back to your senses, because I just so happen to agree."

"But you know what?"

"What?"

"Mine's better." The Canadian added with a smirk. He winked at Stephanie, to Al's chagrin, before walking away.

"I can't believe you're actually friends with that guy." Al snorted, shaking his head. Stephanie just watched as he walked away.

"There was something different about him tonight."

"What was that? Did he actually act civil?"

"It wasn't really that.. I know there was something different, like something was up, just can't put my finger on it.."

* * *

**The Next Week..**

"You had better be right about this, kid."

"Of course I'm right. When this is all over, you'll be thanking me."

"He should be thanking me too, this wouldn't have been possible without my original idea."

"I'll only thank the two of you is this actually works, okay? And let me tell you this is a _very_ far fetch."

"What's the matter Jericho? You were the one that used to come up with these kind of plans, and now you're growing all soft. Toughen up man."

"Don't you tell _me_ anything about toughening up, Rundo!"

"He's right, Chris. Now's not the time to lose your nerve. All you have to do is do this right, and you'll be home free."

"I am not losing my nerve! Give me that!"

"Hey man, I was looking at that!"

"Boo hoo, Wandy lost his wil' booklet. What are you gonna do about it, assclown?"

"Jackass!"

"Idiot!"

_"Would you guys just get on with it?!_ I swear the two of you act like little kids!"

"Fine, fine. You got everything Rundo?"

"Got it all."

"You know what you're doing, Lita?"

"Yes I do."

"Let's get to it then."

* * *

"Why do we need _two_ people to do this?"

"I don't trust you to handle such a big responsibility."

".. Well that's good to know."

Chris rolled his eyes as Lita came out of Stephanie's dressing room. She walked past the two wrestlers leaning back against the wall by Chris' locker room, tapping her ear and not looking at them once.

"That's the sign." The younger man whispered, as Chris smirked.

"You first, kid."

Randy got up and very casually strolled over to Stephanie's locker room. He knocked once, and when there was no answer, nonchalantly let himself in. Chris looked around; no one had even noticed.

Randy looked around the empty dressing room, before finding what he was looking for. He walked over to the first door he saw, opening it to find the bathroom. He frowned and closed it, then turned and bumped right into Chris.

"Watch where you're going!" Chris hissed.

"I didn't even hear you come in!"

"Stealth, a noun. Something legend killer Randy Orton knows nothing about." The Canadian said, rolling his eyes. "Did you find it?"

"Well it's obviously not this door."

"Obviously." Chris snorted, before walking around Stephanie's desk to the opposite side of the dressing room. "You know, for having such a secretarial job, this girl has a huge dressing room."

"Well, _this girl_ is still Vince's only daughter."

"She's such a spoiled brat." The older man said in disgust.

"Yet you love her anyways."

Chris froze as soon as the words were out of Randy's mouth, before slowly turning back to face him.

"What did you just say?"

"I said, you still --"

"I heard what you said!" The Canadian snapped, scowling at him. "And don't say it again."

"Geez, getting all defensive.." Randy trailed, the amusement obvious in his voice.

"Just shut up. Bad enough you're already wasting my oxygen." Chris mumbled, before turning to face yet another door. He opened it, smirking as Randy went over to where he was standing and took a look inside.

"Bingo."

* * *

"Where in the hell is he?!" Trish snarled, stomping down the hallway with Christian and Tomko close behind. "He was supposed to be here by now!"

"Relax, there was a crapload of traffic on the way here, maybe he just got stuck." Christian tried to reason.

"He is twenty minutes late!" She growled, before catching sight of a familiar redhead. "Guys guys, look."

Lita had her cell phone out, sending a text message, knowing that she was being watched. After having sent the message, she looked up, not surprised to see the gang approach her, with Trish leading.

"Hi sweetie, how have you been?" Trish asked, in mock concern. "How are things at home?"

"It's not like you care." Lita answered evenly. Trish burst out laughing and nodded.

"Damn, you got me. You're right, I don't care."

"That's always nice to know." The redhead said sarcastically.

"You know what you need Lita?"

"What's that?"

"A date with someone new. Oh wait, that's right.. you're _married_. Well, there went that idea.. guess you should just take up your issues with that husband of yours.. I'm sure _he'll_ take good care of you."

"Hey, look, there he is." Christian cut in, nudging Trish and pointing. "He must've just gotten here."

"Nice talking to you." Trish said with a fake smile as she went over in the direction that Christian had pointed, Christian and Tomko right on her heels. Lita watched them, before pulling out her phone again.

* * *

"Where the hell have you been?" Trish demanded, as she followed Al, who barged into the dressing room he was sharing with Stephanie.

"Stephanie made me stop by the store. It couldn't be helped."

"Hey, you guys have a big room, it's bigger than mine." Christian said, frowning as he looked around.

"Perks for dating the boss's daughter, I guess."

"So what's going on?"

"Jericho is getting on my damn nerves! He's trying to screw up everything for me!" Al snarled, angrily plopping down on the black leather sofa in the room. He sighed loudly as he leaned his head back. "He just won't leave her _the hell alone_."

"So you can't keep your girl in check, and you turn once again to us." Christian said, snorting. "Let me make one thing straight with you, _buddy_.. we didn't mind helping you take out Jericho before, but that was when he was Intercontinental champion.. which he isn't anymore. So.." He shrugged, before smirking. "I really don't see what's in this for us anymore."

"I thought you guys said you hated him!"

"Well, we're not best friends anymore, that's for sure. But still, you need to give me a damn good reason for putting any more effort into Jericho when I'm wasting time that could be invested in one Shelton Benjamin.. as of right now, _he's_ the one who I want. Jericho can go hook up with Linda McMahon herself if he wanted to and I wouldn't care!"

"He's the one who screwed you over in that cage match back in the day! You said you wouldn't let him get away with that, remember?"

"Guys, just hang on, okay?" Trish said, taking a seat next to Al. "Okay.. let's say, Chris does finally hook up with Stephanie. Are you _really_ going to be heartbroken? Or is it your wallet that's going to be hurting?"

"Yeah, it's not like you actually _love_ her or anything." Tomko said quietly but firmly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "So who cares if they get together?"

"_He_ obviously cares, and so do I." Trish snapped.

"Well, we all know _you're_ still whipped for Jericho," Christian said, snickering as she gave him a look that could have melted lead, before turning back to Al, "But what's your excuse? You said it yourself that you didn't care for her, so why are you hounding us to help you hang on to her? You're wasting your time, dude."

"_Love_ is a very naiive concept, only the foolish really believe in love. And I _do_ care to stay with her.. she's one of the most powerful women I know, don't you idiots know what it would mean to join her family? I'd be set for life.. but here comes Romeo Jericho and wants to ruin everything."

"Well, I still don't see what's in it for me and Tomko if we help you guys out."

Al raised an eyebrow, and tapped his chin. He leaned forward and rubbed his hands, before finally looking back up at Christian.

"If you guys help me keep Jericho the hell away from Stephanie long enough for me to pop the question, I'll make sure to put a word in for you guys with the future father-in-law."

"That is wrong on so many levels.. _I love it!_" Christian said, laughing and high fiving Al. "Now _that's_ a bargain."

"Have you guys seen Jericho around tonight?"

"No, I don't think he's here."

"Hey, I had a long talk with Randy last week. He's not so bad." Trish said, shrugging. "He's actually got a real mean streak in him."

"Uh, hello, he _was_ with Evolution." Christian said, snickering as he looked at Tomko.

"Uh, hello, he's not _with_ them anymore. I didn't know if he had lost it or not, especially hanging out so much with Jericho."

"They hang out all the time though, so that doesn't make sense." Al said, confused.

"He's just using him. He told me that.. he also asked me out.."

"And what did you say?" Christian demanded, more defensively than anything.

"I said yes of course. That'll make Jericho jealous." She said, smirking as she just pictured the look on Chris's face when he saw her hanging off of Randy's arm.

"Well listen guys, I have to go buy Stephanie some damn lotion before she gets here, otherwise she'll be bitching about it all night." Al said, finally standing. "We can talk more later -- what was that?" He said, looking around the room.

"What was what?" Christian asked, looking around as well.

The group quieted down, but all was silent. Trish gave Al a strange look.

"I thought I heard something." He said, before shrugging. "Must've been just me."

"Yeah, this stuff is getting to you."

"No kidding."

* * *

Chris waited for a few moments after the door had closed, before finally letting out the breath he had been holding. Scowling, he turned and smacked Randy on the back of his head.

"Hey!" The younger man cried out indignantly, dropping the tape player he had been holding and rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "What the hell was that for?!"

"For stopping the damn tape player before they were gone! We could've been busted!"

"Well _excuse_ me if my finger slipped! It's not like you were much help, sitting there text messaging Stephanie!"

"At least I was doing it quietly junior! You almost blew our cover!"

"Oh who cares, they're gone now, geez."

"Yes, they're gone. Looks like Trish slipped in telling you she was meeting up with these guys today, huh?"

"Yeah, she's not so bright. Total airhead.. had her in the palm of my hands, you should've seen her."

"I did see junior, I was right there.. I cannot believe you actually agreed to go out with her." He said in disgust, sitting back and pulling out his phone to check for the latest text message from Stephanie.

"Oh who cares.. it's not like I'm _really_ going to go out with her anyways. Let's get out of here now, I'm feeling claustrophobic."

"So open the door." Chris said absent-mindedly, as he texted Stephanie back. Randy rolled his eyes, and slowly stood up, before trying to open the door.

Only to find it was locked.

Had there been more lighting in the closet, Chris would have probably seen Randy visibly pale. Instead, having only the light given off by his cell to go by, he shot him an irritated look, before standing as well.

"_Today,_ Rundo." He said, annoyed.

"Uh.. it's kinda locked.."

"_What do you mean it's locked?!_" Chris snarled angrily, before shoving Randy out of the way. It was more of an attempt, since there was only so much space in the closet. He grabbed the doorknob and attempted to push the door open, but it wouldn't give.

"You idiot!" Chris hissed as he turned and glared at Randy. At least, in the general direction Randy was at. "Why didn't you check the damn door?"

"Dude, you were the one who found it!"

"How the hell are we supposed to get out of here now?"

"Hey, where's the tape player?"

_"Lord help me Randy Orton, if you lost that tape player, I swear.."_

"No, it's right here, I got it."

"Rewind it and play some of it back, just to make sure it works."

"It's not rewinding.. I think it has a scratch on it actually."

"_Damn it Rundo!_" Chris snarled. "Why are you dropping my stuff?"

"Well I wouldn't have dropped it if you wouldn't have hit me!"

"I wouldn't have hit you if you wouldn't have been stupid and stopped it too soon!"

Meanwhile, Stephanie had been amusing herself as she made her way to her dressing room by reading the text message exchanges with Chris. They went something like this:

Inbox 1: _Why must we always be interrupted? Do you purposely tell al to show up or something_

Sent 1: _First off there was nothing to interrupt and 2nd i do not_

Inbox 2: _ So have you figured it out yet?_

Sent 2: _Figured what out?_

Inbox 3: _What it is that you want_

Sent 3: _I want some coffee right about now actually_

Inbox 4: _Lol nice change of subject princess.. not smooth but nice_

Sent 4: _ Because you're always smooth right_

Inbox 5: _You know it baby.. Al cant touch this :P_

She snickered at the last one and stopped by a table to pick up a bottle of water. She looked over at a familiar looking redhead sitting by the table and reading a magazine, before smiling.

"Lita, hi."

Lita immediately looked up, a look of shock crossing her face and then being replaced by a friendly smile.

"Stephanie, it's been a while." She said, standing up and extending her hand. The McMahon took it and snickered.

"Yes it has been.. how have you been?"

"Oh, about as good as I could be with these circumstances."

"Yeah, that has to be tough."

"It is.. but anyways, where are you heading right now? Have some big meeting to get to or something?" Lita asked, forcing a laugh.

"No, just going to my dressing room and maybe get some work done."

"Oh okay.."

"Yeah, but it's been real good talking to you." They shook hands again. "Be careful."

"You too. Take care." Lita said. As soon as Stephanie was gone, she sat back down and immediately pulled out her cell phone.

* * *

Chris felt the phone vibrate in his pocket, but didn't care anymore to hear Stephanie's response. Not at that moment anyways.

He was too busy arguing with Randy to check. Had he checked, he would've realized that it wasn't Stephanie at all.

"That tape player is expensive! You better not have broken it!"

"I did not break it." Randy said, to no avail as Chris snatched it from his hand.

"Moron, now I have to figure it out!"

They were so caught up in arguing that neither of them heard the door to the dressing room open as Stephanie walked in. She yawned and dropped her bag on the sofa, and was about to take out paperwork that still had to be read over and signed when she heard strange noises coming from the closet. She quieted down and approached the door cautiously.

"You idiot, you broke it!"

"I can fix it! I've fixed these things before! It's nothing I haven't seen, come on, give it back."

"You can't fix it, you'll just ruin it again! I can fix it myself, it's _my_ equipment!"

"Fine, just let me feel it. Maybe I can tell what's wrong with it.. ah see, here's another scratch."

"Where?"

"Here. You feel it? It's not that big but it's still there."

"You know what, I don't even care anymore. So long as it's still in one piece and still works."

"Maybe if you press here it'll work.."

Chris watched as Randy pressed the eject button, and the tape door opened. He rolled his eyes as Randy closed it again.. though he caught Chris' finger in the process.

"OW!" The Canadian yelped, immediately pulling his finger free and sucking on it.

"Sorry.. that was an accident.. oh here we go."

Chris looked down and heard the familiar whirring noise as the tape began to rewind.

"It's about time you got it going." The Canadian mumbled, shaking his hand off as Randy took the tape player back.

"I told you I knew how to work these things. Hey man, this thing is kind of hot though. Feel it?" He said, handing it out to Chris, who waved it off.

"That's because you overworked it you moron."

Stephanie, having heard the entire conversation but in the wrong kind of context, had heard enough and used her key to unlock the door. She swung the door open, only to find Randy standing there holding a tape player and Chris next to him, holding his finger.

"Please tell me what you guys have been doing in here." She said, slightly amused by the looks of surprise on their faces.

"First let me get the hell out of here, I was about to go crazy in there." Randy mumbled, handing Chris the tape player and walking out of the closet, and then out of the dressing room altogether. Stephanie watched him leave, then turned back to Chris.

"Can you please tell me what you're doing hiding in my closet with Randy Orton?"

He snickered and simply handed over the tape player to her.

* * *

_"I cannot believe this.."_

"Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so Princess." Chris said, as he sat on the edge of her desk.

He watched as her eyes darkened, before her bitchy look came back to her face while she paced back and forth in the dressing room. He smirked, hopping off the desk.

"That asshole.. I cannot believe I didn't see this sooner.."

"He's been using you."

"Unbelievable! Who in the hell does he think he is? And here I was concerned with not leaving him for.."

"For who?" Chris mumbled, stopping her pacing as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. He pulled her close against him, kissing the side of her neck.

"For this one guy I know.." She said, his kisses dazing her.

"I guess I'll just have to kill him." He said, as she turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Chris, I think I know what I want."

"What's that?" He asked, licking his lips. "Some Vitamin C, perhaps?"

"Revenge." She said, an evil gleam in her eyes as she smirked.

"Payback's gonna be a bitch then.. between the four of us, we can take them on."

"Who else is in?"

"It's me, you, Lita, and Rundo. It couldn't be helped. You really have no idea how hard to get you are. I mean, first it was just me and Lita, but then --"

"Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

And for once, he had no problem complying. 


	11. Jealousy

Hehe I'm updating on time. XD lol I'm proud of myself.

Anyways... here you go. I own nothing. :P

* * *

Stephanie sighed, rolling her eyes as boredom overcame her. She drummed her fingers on the table where she was sitting, as she listened to Eric Bischoff going on about Survivor Series. She took a look around at all the wrestlers sitting near her, who looked equally bored as well. 

"Now I know that some of you have had questions regarding the matches that are going down at Survivor Series, but don't worry, they will be addressed tonight. As you all know, or at least, I hope you all know, Survivor Series will be a joint pay-per-view with Raw matches and Smackdown matches.."

Snickering was heard as the wrestlers began talking in low tones to each other at this point. Stephanie sighed loudly again, before feeling something like a crumpled piece of paper bounce off the back of her head. She spun around, scanning everyone standing behind her, before her eyes came to rest on a particular Canadian. She narrowed her eyes angrily at him.

Chris gave her a look of feigned surprise, before pointing to Randy who was standing next to him. Randy noticed this and gave him a puzzled look as Stephanie "hmmph"ed and turned back towards Bischoff.

"This is going to be yet another chance for Raw to shine. I want you guys to know, after this pay-per-view, I'm going to be taking a month off for a vacation that I for one feel is _very _well-deserved.."

Stephanie rolled her eyes and felt yet another crumpled ball of paper bounce off her head. She growled and turned to give Chris a death glare, but he once again pointed to Randy. Randy frowned and shoved Chris, whose smirk was giving him away.

"Excuse me.. is there something going on back there? Stephanie? Jericho?" Bischoff asked, glaring in that direction.

Everyone turned to look in their direction at this. Stephanie gave them her bitchy look as she turned back around, and Chris shook his head while Randy snickered.

"I thought so. Anyways.. as far as tonight goes, word has it that Triple H isn't going to be here tonight."

The wrestlers all gave a cheer at that as Randy leaned down so Chris could whisper something to him, while he crumpled up another flyer that he had grabbed from the table behind him. Randy laughed out loud at what Chris told him, and nodded in agreement. The Canadian pulled away and straightened, just in time to have a ball of crumpled paper bounce off his nose.

Stephanie gave him a smile as he sneered at her, before turning back around to face Bischoff again.

Randy, not particularly caring in anything else Bischoff had to say, looked around and spotted Lita sitting by the entrance, looking especially bored. He turned in time to see Chris grab a water bottle with an evil look on his face, and decided it would probably be better if he left those two alone. He headed over to where Lita was sitting and took a seat in the empty chair next to her.

"I guess the plans all worked huh?" He said, distracting Lita from sending Trish anymore dirty looks. Lita looked over at Chris, who was slowly approaching Stephanie from behind with his water bottle.

"Yeah, I guess they did." She said, almost mechanically, making Randy give her a confused look.

"Well don't sound too excited."

"No no, I didn't mean it like that." She sighed. "He's a good friend and I'm glad he's finally getting somewhere with her.. it's just.. well, never mind."

"No, what were you going to say?" Randy pressed, but she only shook her head. He gave her a curious look.

"Forget it, it's nothing. I'm gonna go, I'm tired of hearing about Triple H." She said, standing. He stood as well, and when she caught his look, she patted his arm. "Don't worry about it, Randy, seriously. I'll catch you later right? I hear this meeting isn't going to be the only one of the night."

"That's what I'm told."

Stephanie, bored to tears and not noticing that Chris was right behind her, poised to douse her with some water, chose that moment to raise her hand to ask if she could leave. In doing so, she knocked the water bottle back, spilling water on him instead.

She turned to see what she had hit, and looked up at him to meet his scowl. She burst out laughing and snatched the water bottle from his hand.

"Thanks, I was kind of thirsty." She said, winking at him as she turned back around, while he took a seat next to her.

"I know, I know, hot and sexy people will make you thirsty like that." He said arrogantly, adjusting his shirt so it showed off more of his chest as he leaned towards her. "Ain't that right?"

"Yes, because Hurricane's a sexy turn-on." She said, motioning to the super hero sitting in front of her as Chris scowled once again.

"Like I said," Lita cut in, drawing Randy's attention again. "I'm gonna go."

"Okay, I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah, see you around."

Randy watched her give Trish another dirty look, then give Chris and Stephanie a look he couldn't quite place before leaving. Hanging out with the Canadian every week had greatly enhanced not only Randy's smart ass vocabulary, but also his intuitive and curious nature. He knew something was up that he wasn't in on; just couldn't place it just yet.

He leaned back against the wall and watched as Chris randomly poked Stephanie on her side, earning angry glares in the process. Sighing, he leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes as he fell into deep thought.

Revenge was what the two wanted, not that Randy could blame them. He was more than ready to lend a helping hand; after all, payback was a sweet and beautiful thing.

And against a group like Al's, it would be twice as rewarding.

_"Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon! Do I need to get you two a hotel room?!" _Eric Bischoff angrily shouted, snapping Randy out of it. Randy looked over at Trish, who had a look nothing short of evil on her face as she glared at Chris and Stephanie. He snickered; she had no idea what she was in for.

Chris leaned back in his chair, stopping his tickling assault on Stephanie (who was busy fixing her appearance as they once again had the attention of everyone in the room) as he looked defiantly at his boss.

"You don't need to, but if you really want to, we'll take it." Chris said with his cocky demeanor. Stephanie grabbed the water bottle from the table by the top and went to smack him on the head with it, but he got his arm up in time.

"That's it for this meeting." Bischoff spat out angrily, knowing he wouldn't be able to control a whole room full of wrestlers should they all grow defiant; which they all looked ready to do too. He stepped down from the podium as everyone in the room began talking all at once.

"Rundo, what are you doing all the way over here?"

"Felt like getting away from you and Stephanie for a while, for one." Randy said, amused. "Where is she by the way?"

"Going to meet up with her pathetic excuse of a man."

"But I thought that was over?"

"It is. He just doesn't know it yet."

* * *

"I thought Bischoff said Triple H wasn't going to be here tonight." Chris said in disgust, shaking his head as he walked away from a monitor, Triple H's segment still fresh on his mind. 

"He's not here, this is from a _remote location._" Randy said, emphasizing the words with his fingers as they both headed down the hallway. Chris snorted and shook his head.

"And here I thought Halloween was over."

"You really think he's not here?"

"I don't know. Remember what I told you, kid. He's like a cockroach. He just doesn't go away." The Canadian said, shrugging.

"Who cares about that though? Imagine if we win at Survivor Series! We can get that title off Triple H so fast.."

"And back around my glorious waist, I know.." Chris said smugly as he pictured it in his mind.

"So have you and Stephanie come up with anything good yet?" Randy asked, getting an evil smirk from his companion.

"It's a work in progress, Rundo."

"But you had all week to think about it! What the hell were you guys do -- okay, I'm not even gonna go there."

Chris just snickered as he pushed open the door to his dressing room, not surprised to find Lita there already waiting for them.

He _was, _however, surprised to find Maven in there with her.

Chris's gaze went from Lita, to Maven, then back again to Lita, as if demanding an explanation. Maven stood up as Randy watched from over Chris's shoulder.

"Chris man, I wanted to ask you a favor. I need you and Randy to back me up."

Chris gave Lita a puzzled look before looking at Maven, raising an eyebrow as Randy stepped in next to him.

"That depends, Munvo. What are you gonna do?"

"Munvo?"

"Munvo, Monvi, whatever your name is, get on with it. What are you gonna do?" Chris demanded impatiently.

"I wanted to give Evolution a piece of my mind, but I obviously can't take them both on at once." Maven said, frowning as he took Randy's cue for him to drop the name thing because he just wouldn't win.

"We'll help you out." Randy said decisively, getting a glare from Chris.

"Excuse you Rundo? I make the decisions around here, seeing as how I have seniority." The Canadian stated, before turning back to Maven. He looked at him for a few moments, before finally nodding. "We'll help you out."

"Alright guys, that's really cool! Strength in numbers, that's what I'm talking about! We got it at Survivor Series, yeah! High-five!" He said, raising both of his hands. Randy high-fived him, but Chris simply stared.

"Just let us know when you're on your way so we don't show up too late, Munvo." The older man said, walking around him and going to take a seat next to Lita. Randy gave Maven a reassuring look.

"Don't worry, he's like that." Randy said in a low tone, though containing amusement at the look on Maven's face. "We'll be there, just let us know."

"Thanks, I will."

"Rookies," Chris snickered after Maven had left. "If _I _was a rookie, I would've gone up to Evolution on my own and taken a stand."

"And gotten your ass kicked?" Randy said as he took a seat on the opposite side of Lita. "You can barely handle Batista_ right now_, let's not say when you were a rookie."

"Hey, I was a _damn _good rookie. I was trained by Stu Hart, not by _Al Snow_, okay?"

"Are you ripping on Al Snow?"

"I don't like him."

"Why?"

"His name is Al. I already told you I don't like that name_.. Al.. _what kind of person would name their kid _Al.."_

"That's name discrimination."

"Kid, you can't even spell discrimination so shut up."

"Okay guys, cut it out." Lita said, cutting in. "You wanted to talk about the plan, right?"

"That's right, Rundo over here getting me all off topic."

"_Me? _Oh give me a break."

"Yes, you. I see no other Rundo around here, now do I?"

"See, you get yourself off topic!"

_"Guys!"_

"Okay okay, let's see.." Chris said, rubbing his hands together. "You know, I don't really care for Christian and Tomko."  
  
"Oh, didn't you hear?" Lita interjected. "Tomko's hurt."

"I didn't hear that." Randy frowned.

"You never hear anything, that's your problem." Chris chastised, then continued, not allowing Randy a chance to cut in. "In any case, they were lackies in all this. All Christian wanted was my title, which I don't have anymore..."

"So we're only looking at Al and Trish then."

"That's the idea. You two get Trish, me and Stephanie will take care of Al."

"Speaking of," Lita cut in. "Where _is _Stephanie?" Randy gave Chris a look which the Canadian missed.

"She's with Al. He doesn't know that she knows what's going on, she's playing dumb. I wanted to do this this week, but we didn't come up with anything yet.. nothing good anyways." Chris said, shrugging. "That's why this is Strategizing Week."

"Strategizing Week?" Lita and Randy said together.

"Yes.. iron out all the details, stuff like that."

"Well I don't know what we can really do anyways without Stephanie here, so I'm gonna go." Lita said, standing. Chris looked at Randy, who just shrugged, before standing up.

"You don't have to go, I was just saying."

"I know, but I have some things to take care of anyways." She said, already opening the door. "See you guys later."

Chris went and sat back down next to Randy silently, the look on his face a combination of bewilderment and confusion. He looked at Randy, who once again, just shrugged.

"Did I say something?"

"No, least, I don't think you did. Sometimes women get offended over little things though, but I don't think Lita's like that."

"So what the hell was that all about?"

"Well it's obvious that she's.." Randy started, before catching himself. "Ah never mind."

"What were you going to say?" Chris growled, before knocking was heard on the door.

"That's probably Maven, we should go."

"Not til you tell me what you were going to say."

Randy looked at him, sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest and a stubborn look on his face. He sighed, and knew that he really wasn't going to budge.

"Fine.. I was just thinking, not that I _know _anything, but I just get the vibe that Lita, well.. she's kind of, how would you say.."

"Oh spare me the drama kid, just let it out." Chris said, rolling his eyes impatiently.

"Jealous."

"Jealous? Of what?"

"I don't know of what, but if I was a betting man, I'd say she's jealous that of you and Stephanie."

"Give me a _break._" Chris scoffed, before laughing. "Jealous of us? Why? We're not even officially together.. yes we've made considerable progress, but she's technically still with Al until further notice.. I guess we're kind of unofficially together or something like that.. actually, I'm not really sure _what _we are." He said, frowning as he thought about it. "I guess you could say that --"

"I don't think she's jealous of _you two._" Randy interrupted, lest Chris get a spiel going. "I think she's jealous of Stephanie."

"Again, that makes no sense." Chris said, standing up and heading over to the door. "There's nothing to even be jealous about."

"Dude, either you've never seen a girl be jealous before or you're seriously blind. I mean, even _I _can see that Lita's jealous, and it can't be of you, so it has to be of Stephanie." Randy said as he stood as well, following Chris out of the dressing room. "She's trying not to make it obvious, like _Trish_, but come on, it's still there."

"She has no reason to be jealous."

"I think she does."

"Like what, for example? Is she jealous of Stephanie's hair?" The Canadian mocked, before going off into thought. "She does have nice hair though, it's very soft.."

"No Jericho, somehow I think it's deeper than that."

"There _is _nothing deeper than that."

"God you really are hopeless. Look, Maven's going into the locker room over there, that's probably Evolution's."

"Fine, let's go help the rookie out. But we are _not _done with this conversation, I hope you know."

"Trust me, I know."

"You know what? I'm gonna have to teach you and Munvo some new wrestling technique." Chris stated, as they walked over in the direction of Evolution's locker room.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"How to fight dirty. You kids fight too clean, it's not gonna work with Evolution."

"Please, I know how to fight dirty, okay? I was _with _Evolution."

"Don't worry.. I'll show you how it's really done."

* * *

Chris and Randy stared at each other a half hour after the show had ended, both daring the other to make a move. 

"You first." Chris demanded, his glare never faltering.

"_You _first." Randy responded, matching the Canadian's glare.

"Would one of you just go already?" Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. "Geez, wasting my time."

Randy laid out his hand on the table as Chris and Stephanie leaned in to see.

"Three queens, huh? Read 'em and weep junior." Chris said, smirking as he laid down his hand. Randy scowled as he saw three kings, while Chris leaned back arrogantly. "I'm the king of the world, didn't you hear?"

"Then what does that make me?" Stephanie said, laying down her hand, revealing three aces. She laughed at the silence that she produced, before picking up all the cards.

"Whatever." Chris said, waving it off. "Just a stupid game."

"Losers always say that." Stephanie smirked at him, but he just snickered. "So we've agreed on the plan for next week?"

"Hell yes." The Canadian said, grinning as he leaned back on the sofa. "It is going to be so sweet, I can't wait."

"Neither can I." She responded, her eyes sparkling as she imagined it. "I absolutely _hated _spending time with Al tonight.. God I almost did cartwheels when he agreed to let me leave on my own. I just can't stand him anymore, I can't believe I couldn't see how fake he's been with me all this time.."

Somewhere during her spiel, Chris had effectively zoned out and was just staring at her. He loved the way she came to life when she was pissed; he always had. That was a major part of the reason he loved to rile her up (the other part being that it was fun, of course).

Randy noticed the way Chris was gazing at her as she kept going on about how much she hated Al. He smirked and pulled up his bag near him, before digging through it.

".. I mean he's using me worse than Hunter in some ways, at least Hunter wasn't in it for the money, you know what I mean? And it upsets me that he wanted to keep me away from you, because even if everything was fine, what, am I not allowed to have friends, I mean honestly Chris, why didn't you figure it all out sooner.."

Chris sighed contentedly, pleased inwardly that they had arrived to this point. After all the weeks of heartache and drama, everything was out in the clear.

Well, amost everything anyways. Payback still had to be dealt out, of course, but not before he got to the bottom of whatever was going on with Lita..

"Chris, are you even listening to me?" Stephanie demanded, drawing his attention once again. He nodded, and was going to respond when Randy held up a piece of paper with some writing on it behind Stephanie, diverting his attention.

It read: _Just tell her that you're madly in love with her already you idiot._

Whatever Chris was going to respond with died on his tongue the moment he read that, and, having one of those rare occasions in his life, he was rendered speechless. Stephanie looked at him curiously, before turning to look at Randy, who crumpled up the paper as soon as she did.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What's going --"

"Nothing, nothing." Chris said quickly, grabbing her hand and sending Randy a look that simply read _"I am going to beat the living hell out of you". _Randy smirked and shrugged, responding with his own look that read _"Ha, you're not going to in front of Stephanie!" _

"Steph, can you leave me and Randy alone for a few minutes?" The Canadian asked as she looked back at him.

"I'm just gonna go actually, I didn't realize how late it was. Don't want to keep Al waiting!" She said in mock excitement, before rolling her eyes.

"That assclown is going to get his. He's lucky I didn't run into him tonight, let me tell you. I'd have to give him an official Y2J style beating." He said smugly.

"Whatever." She said, standing up and prompting both of them to also stand. She walked over to the door, Chris right behind her.

"So I'll call you?"

"You called me every day last week and you didn't ask me permission then, so why are you asking it now?"

"I never ask for permission, woman. I do what I want, when I want." He grabbed her arm and stopped her from opening the door. She gave him a curious yet daring look as he smirked and backed her up against the door, letting his hands trail to her hips. "Like right now."

"Hey, say the word and I'll leave." Randy said, not wanting to be scarred for life by being subjected to whatever Chris wanted to do.

"You asked me to leave you two alone." Stephanie said, trying her best to not give in to his little game. "So, Mr. Jericho, would you please let me go so you two boys can talk about whatever it is that you talk about?"

"Mr. Jericho, huh? I prefer Chris."

"Aw, well I prefer different shoes at the moment and you don't hear me complaining."

He laughed and leaned in, giving her a peck on the lips. He pulled back, surprised to find her giving him a look of extreme annoyance.

"You call that a goodbye kiss?"

"Ah Princess, I know you can never get enough of me, but let's not get greedy now. There's enough Vitamin C to go around."

"You ass." She said, punching him in the shoulder, which was enough to make him let go. He frowned at her.

"That hurt." He pouted, making her smirk.

"Oh well." She said teasingly as she turned back to the door and opened it. She looked at him over her shoulder. "That's what you get."

"That's cold, Steph." He whined.

"Isn't it?" She said, laughing, before turning back to him and giving him a tight hug, which led to a real kiss between the two. Randy groaned loudly at the public display of affection, and was about to protest when his cell vibrated. He checked it and saw that he had received a text message from Trish.

And here he had thought it may have been important.

"Ahem." Randy said, clearing his throat. Stephanie pulled away from Chris and blew Randy a kiss as Chris shot him an annoyed look for interrupting.

"Okay, I'll see you boys next week." She said, letting go of Chris. "You better call me."

"Please, like you even have to ask." Chris snorted, poking her on the side. She swatted his finger away and gave him another annoyed look, which he met with the most charming smile that he could muster. She stuck her tongue out at him, before leaving the room altogether.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Randy asked, making Chris turn back and give him a stern glare.

"I don't appreciate your little message, Rundo."

"It's true, I think it's time you just admit it."

"That's not your call to make!"

"So you admit it, you do love her."

"Oh _no _you don't, you're not getting me into that dicussion, junior."

"Well you're not denying it." Randy shrugged, before smirking as Chris gave him an irritated look. "You looooove Stephaniiiieeee.."

"Shut the hell up!"

"Chris is in loooove.."

"Damn it Rundo, what did I say?"

"He is whiiiiipped.."

"Am not!" Chris cried out indignantly, his face gaining a tint of red. "I don't want to talk about this anyways!"

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"You said Lita was jealous, and said I couldn't see why. So, maybe I can't, but if you can, then I suggest you _spill_, kid."

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I would say she's jealous of Stephanie.. because of you." Chris' look changed from annoyance to confusion, so Randy continued. "I don't know if it's because Stephanie is going to have a man there for her, like if Lita's jealous of the relationship aspect, or if it's because that guy is going to be _you_."

Chris scowled; he hated dealing with this sort of thing. Bad enough he always had to sort out his feelings towards certain females, but he hated trying to figure out what other girls were feeling in regards to him. It was drama that he just didn't need.

Not to mention, he just wasn't any good at it. But like hell he'd ever admit that.

"It's probably the first." Chris mumbled. "It can only be the second if.."

"If she's starting to look at you more than a friend." Randy finished. The very thought stunned Chris, who shook it off.

"Can't be that. If, _if _she's jealous at all, then it _has _to be the first. There's just no way it can be the second."

Randy shrugged, frowning. "It's not like it would be _that _bad.. she's attractive."

"You just don't get it. We're _friends_, kid. _Friends _should always stay _friends."_

"You were friends with Stephanie, weren't you?" Randy shot back, not knowing why he was defending Lita's stance. Hell, he wasn't even sure that she _was _jealous, it was just a vibe he had gotten by sitting next to her for a few minutes. Chris, on the other hand, was his best friend. He should therefore be siding with him.

Right?

"What are you trying to say?" Chris demanded, staring at the younger man intently.

"I don't know, never mind, forget it." Randy said, standing up from where he had been sitting. "I'm gonna let her know her part of the plan, and we'll just go from there next week."

"See kid, now you got me thinking that maybe she is jealous." Chris groaned, running a hand through his loose hair. "I hope it's not true, I don't really need to deal with this on _top _of getting some payback. I like to tackle one thing at a time, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I know. I guess we'll find out though."

"I guess we will."

* * *

"So you get what's going on next week?" 

"Yeah, I got it. Sounds good."

"So, um," Randy said, uncomfortable as he kicked at the ground with the toe of his boot. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good." Lita said, giving him a confused look as she leaned against the side of her car. "A little sore from that encounter with Trish but, I guess that can't be helped."

"I wasn't really talking about that.."

"Oh.." She said, crossing her arms. "Well, if this is about Kane.."

"No, it's not about that either. It's about Chris."

"What about him?"

"Well, I just.." He paused, not wanting to come out and blatantly ask her what he really wanted to know. He had to be more tactful than that; not to mention he'd have an extremely pissed Canadian to deal with should he be that blunt.

"You what?"

"Well, I know you guys have been friends for a while.. but I just kind of got a feeling that you wanted more from him.. wanted him as maybe something more than a friend." He shrugged, and was glad it was nighttime so she couldn't see him blushing.

_Come on man, you're a lady's man, snap the hell out of it! You can talk to one girl!_

He shook his head and looked right at her, trying to read her response.

"Randy," She started, carefully choosing her words, "If I was interested in him as being more than a friend.. then why would I want to help him get Stephanie in the first place?"

"You tell me."

They remained in silence for a while, before she sighed loudly.

"It doesn't even matter.. he's been blinded by Stephanie since Day 1." She said quietly, and he nodded, before it dawned on him what she was saying.

_Holy shit. I was right!_

_Damn I'm getting good at reading people._

_I can't believe I didn't notice sooner._

_I wonder what Chris would say right now. Probably something like "Everyone loves me." Arrogant jackass.._

_Wow, she looks kind of hot right now.._

_I was right.. man I hate being right._

"Randy?"

"But.." He sputtered, forcing himself to speak. "What about Matt?"

"I love Matt." She said, sighing. "He's always been there. But so has Chris. Have you ever felt like there was someone you had a chance with and they slipped away?"

He thought about it, before shaking his head. She snickered and rolled her eyes.

"That's right.. lady's man Randy Orton gets anyone he wants, right?" She said teasingly, but instead of the words inflating his ego like they normally would do, they hit him like a brick.

"That makes me sound like some kind of womanizer or something." He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"I didn't mean it like that Randy, don't take it that way." She hesitated for a moment, choosing her words more carefully. "Chris doesn't fit the bill of the guy that got away.. he's more like the guy who just never was. He was always just a friend, and he's always been head over heels for Stephanie.. so I guess.." Her voice trailed off as she suddenly looked up at him. "Please don't tell him any of this. He's happy with Stephanie, I don't really want to ruin that. Especially after what happened with Trish, he deserves this."

"I won't tell." He said, shaking his head. He crossed his arms over his chest, ready to listen attentively.

"I guess when he came to me for help, it didn't really make a difference. I was already tied up with Matt and Kane, so it's not like there was much hope.. well, let me rephrase that. There _is _no hope for anything between us."

"So is that why you agreed to help in the first place?"

"I agreed to help him because I knew how much he wanted it." She said, sighing again. "Didn't you see them? They're perfect. I can't compete with that.. it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt though."

Without thinking about what he was doing, he stepped towards her and hugged her. She tensed at the initial contact, before easing and letting him hug her.

"Things work out in the long run."

"Yeah." She let out a deep breath, before pulling away from him. "Thanks, Randy."

"No problem."

She gave him an appreciative look before opening the door to her car and climbing in.

"See you next week."

"Til next week."

Randy watched as she pulled out of the parking lot, standing there for several moments. After her car was out of sight, he turned and looked at the car that had been parked next to her, and walked behind it. As he expected, he found a certain Canadian sitting behind it, leaning back against the car.

"Told you." He said simply, as Chris shook his head.

"I can't believe this. Talk about something I didn't need." The older man sighed, closing his eyes. "Man.. I should've seen this coming."

"Now what?"

"I don't know kid."

They both sighed simultaneously and remained in silence for several moments, each deep in thought, before Chris finally broke the silence.

"Women."

"Tell me about it."


	12. Game Over

So I went from putting a chapter up on time to being like..4.. okay 5 weeks behind lol. My apologies.. I've been caught up with some family stuff that has kept me away from my trusted computer.. I've been re-writing this chapter over the span of like 2 weeks during my lunch periods _(wasup with dat?)._ But this chapter is the second to last anyways.. (so had I updated on time it'd be done by now!) Just giving you guys a heads up on that.. I mean what better way to end this than to have Randy and Chris as GMs during my last two chapters right? ... Right? ... lol. :P

Thank you all for the reviews. Those always make my day. :)

This is from last week's.. obviously. :P

* * *

If there was one thing Randy Orton hated more than making a mistake, it was being constantly reminded of it. 

"You know kid, you still manage to surprise me sometimes."

"Should I be complimented?" The younger man asked sarcastically, wishing the Canadian would just let it be.

"No, you shouldn't." Chris said, rolling his eyes as he entered the arena. "You still to this day surprise me with your level of stupidity."

"It wasn't _my _fault, okay? How was I supposed to know –"

"Excuses, Rundo, excuses. It's all you give me."

"Oh, because _you _should talk." Randy mumbled as he followed Chris, glad that the older man couldn't see how embarrassed he was.

"I have never had that happen to me, kid, check again."

"I told you, that's how they gave me the car!"

"Okay, let me get this straight." Chris stopped and rubbed his chin dramatically as if in deep thought. "They gave you your rental, and then you went to the hotel to get some sleep.. then you left to come to the arena.. and during all of that, you never _once _stopped to wonder if you had enough gas in your car."

"I did notice that I was running low." Randy shot back defensively, getting a knowing look from Chris. He _knew _he should've called Maven to go pick him up. "I did! Just there were no gas stations in sight.."

"It's okay, Rundo." Chris said in a mock comforting voice as he patted the young man's shoulder. "You're GM tonight, I know, and plus, it's not your fault that you were dropped on your head when you were a baby."

Randy sneered at the older man as he shoved his hand off him, making Chris laugh as he turned and kept walking down the halls. The younger man frowned and followed him.

"So where's Stephanie?"

"Probably with Al." Chris replied in a bored tone. "They're catching up, since he _was _on vacation and all."

"Best four weeks of your life, huh?" Randy smirked, pleased to have gotten off the topic of his earlier misfortunes.

"Are you kidding me?" The Canadian snorted. "The plan had to be put on hold until he came back. It's been the _longest_ four weeks of my life."

"So tonight, I'll be running the show, and you and Stephanie will be back here up to no good." He sighed dramatically as Chris rolled his eyes. "But at least Al will get his."

"Oh, he will.. watch and learn kid, you'll see."

* * *

Meanwhile, Stephanie and Al were sitting on the leather sofa in their dressing room, hanging out and spending quality time together as girlfriend and boyfriend and making up for time missed. 

In other words, Stephanie was bored out of her mind.

She tried not to let a look of disgust cover her beautiful features when Al casually draped an arm over her shoulder, hugging her closer. She looked at him, and imagined herself pulling his hair out until he squealed, and then making Chris lock him in the Walls for about.. oh, about an hour or so. Then again, that might be too long. Chris could get tired, after all.

Maybe she could just feed him to Snitsky. That would be nice. Snitsky could throw him off the stage, or maybe even put him through a table..

"Steph, babe, are you listening?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie." She said, giving him her most loving smile, while picturing shipping him off to Smackdown as a sacrifice offering to the Undertaker. Honestly, why couldn't the man have just _stayed _gone?

Then again.. that would've meant no satisfaction of payback for her and Chris.

And that was just unacceptable.

"What were you saying?"

"I was asking what you wanted to do tonight after the show. It's been four weeks since we've been together, we have to do _something._" He said, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Baby, I'll go wherever you want to go." She said with her charm that only she could muster up. He smiled at her and leaned towards her, giving her a light kiss on the lips. She resisted the urge to gag, lest she raise any suspicions.

After the pain and agony (also known as Al's kiss) was over, she stood up, making him raise his eyebrows.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm kinda thirsty." She said, heading over to the door. She really just needed distance between the two, before their "quality time" started to make her lose IQ points.

"You know what," He said, standing as well. "I think I'll join you."

"You don't have to."

He smirked, knowing full well that if he left her alone, she'd run off to her so-called "friend", Chris Jericho. She was trying to outsmart him and he knew it; he was not about to let her pull the wool over _his _eyes, oh no.. he was going to be the one to come out on top of this little situation going on with Chris Jericho.

He gave her a smile, though she thought she caught a glimmer in his eye. She gave him a suspicious look, wondering what he was up to as he opened the door for her.

"Oh Stephanie, I insist."

* * *

Randy sighed as he rolled his eyes. He had heard this story so many times, he knew it by heart.. and being Gereral Manager for a week did not excuse him from hearing it again. 

"I'm telling you kid, no one has –"

"_Ever done something like that before._" Randy said, finishing off his sentence as he straightened out his shirt. Chris frowned, slightly annoyed, but decided to ignore him and keep going.

"I beat The Rock and Austin –"

"_On the same night, one after the other._"

"It was the best night of my life, and to this very day, I'm still –"

"_The man who united both belts for the first time._"

"Hey junior, you better stop –"

"_Interrupting me, or I swear, I'm gonna give you a lesson from the King of the World!"_

"If you don't –"

"_Shut the hell up, you're gonna get it, Rundo!_"

"I'm warning you, kid," Chris angrily growled, much to the younger man's amusement, "If you don't stop –"

"_You're gonna really piss me off, and I'm – _hey!" Randy cried out, wincing after Chris punched him hard in the shoulder.

"Keep it up, it'll be harder next time." Chris sneered.

"Jackass." The younger man mumbled as he rubbed his shoulder.

"What did you say?" The Canadian asked dangerously.

"Oh, look who's coming." Randy said, catching sight of a very familiar couple. "Behind you."

Chris looked over his shoulder to where Randy was signaling, just in time to catch Stephanie walking down the hallway with Al in tow. He quickly turned away, cursing under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Randy asked, looking at him curiously.

The older man shook his head, snatching a water bottle off the table next to them. He took the top off and started chugging, his back to the approaching couple.

"What is it?" Randy demanded again, getting a sneer in return. At least, he thought it was a sneer – it was kind of hard to tell with the water bottle in his friend's mouth.

Before Chris got the chance to respond, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Randy watched curiously as he turned and gave Stephanie a look of feigned surprise.

"Steph! What a pleasure to see you." Chris said, wiping his lips with his forearm as he put his water bottle down. "Uh.. what's going on?" He choked out, forcing a smile.

"Oh, nothing much." Stephanie replied, matching his fake smile with one of her own, making him shift his weight uncomfortably. She then turned her eyes to Randy and gave him a more friendly greeting, while Chris and Al glared at each other.

"So.." Randy started, feeling some tension in the air and growing more uncomfortable by the second, but more curious at the same time. "Anything interesting going on tonight?"

"Other than your battle royal thing you have going on, I don't really think so." Al said, as he nonchalantly wrapped an arm around Stephanie's waist (much to her chagrin), making the Canadian sneer involuntarily.

"Hey Alice, that _thing _is for the World Title, something you'd know nothing about." Chris responded snidely, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's not really fair for Triple H, if you think about it." Al said, rubbing his chin. "You guys are kinda screwing him over."

"Nah, ya think?" Randy retorted sarcastically.

_Hmmm. _Al thought silently, tapping his chin. _Might have to tell the future father-in-law what these scumbags are up to. Maybe get him to change the stipulations a bit. _

Chris noticed the wheels turning inside Al's head, and while he didn't figure he posed any real threat with any idea he could come up with, he knew enough to know that Al could sure as hell be an annoyance if he had to be.

"I should probably go meet up with Benoit and discuss some strategy. Maybe we can be the last two, or in the last four at least.." The Canadian stated, purposely looking off to the side as to avoid making eye contact with Stephanie, who was currently staring a hole through him. It was a calm kind of staring though - which made it even scarier for him.

"Oh, speaking of meetings! I totally forgot!" Alice, er, Al groaned, mock smacking his forehead. "I was supposed to meet up with your dad, Stephanie."

"For what?" She said, thoroughly confused as she furrowed her brow.

"He just wanted to iron some things out with me. He's giving me advice on some issues I'm having." He said in a smug tone, ignoring the looks of disgust he was getting from Chris as Randy rolled his eyes.

"Okay then, I guess I'll just see you later." Stephanie said, kissing him on the cheek. Al sent a cocky smirk in Chris' direction, before giving Stephanie a light kiss on the lips. Stephanie wasn't prepared for this downright attack, but resisted the urge to sucker punch Al and smiled sweetly at him instead.

Neither of them noticed Randy grabbing Chris' arm, in an attempt to stop the Canadian from going berserk on the other man. After all, Randy still had a bad taste in his mouth after the whole barber experience.

Al pulled away from Stephanie and gave his goodbyes, which was met with a mumbled "Good riddance" from Chris. He smirked as he walked off, knowing that he had gotten under the Canadian's skin. He headed off in the direction of Vince's office, but as soon as he was around the corner and out of sight, he stopped walking and very stealthily leaned up against the wall. He quietly sneaked back over to the corner, but not so far as they'd be able to see him. Nonchalantly, he picked up a magazine from a nearby table and pretended to be reading.

He was going to catch the bastard in the act - Chris was _not _going to win this little war, oh no he was not.

Meanwhile, Chris, Randy, and Stephanie were standing still, purposely waiting for Al to be far enough so as not to hear their conversation. After about a minute, Chris hesitantly cleared his throat.

"So.. how about that battle royal huh?" He said, chuckling nervously. Randy gave him a suspicious look, but didn't have any time for questions before Stephanie stalked right up to the older man.

"Stephanie," Chris started, raising his arms as he went into defensive mode. "I can explain -"

"Can you?" She said in a surprisingly calm voice, as she crossed her arms and stuck her chin up at him, her "bitchy" look as bitchy as ever.

"Yes, I can explain -"

"Who's stopping you?" She interrupted, looking around. "I don't see anyone stopping you, so by all means, explain. I have all the time in the world to hear this." She leaned her weight to one side and began rhythmically tapping her foot, making him gulp. That was her warning sign - it was about as dangerous as the arrogant got-a-stick-up-my-ass "Power Walk" that Vince was known for.

It somehow never meant any good.

"Okay.. so I woke up this morning, and I was like _'Wow.. it's a nice day today.' _And I decided to get up and get ready so you know.. I could go out for a drive.."

Randy, sensing a storm brewing, suddenly remembered that he was the General Manager and didn't have to stay and listen to this. Hell, he could have Chris fired that night, and no one could do a damn thing... but then again, he'd have a stalking and potentially very dangerous Canadian to deal with for the rest of his life - or until Chris got his job back. So maybe that wasn't a good threat to use.

Even so, he decided that right then would be a very good time for him to retreat. After all, he _was _the GM. He had more pending things to get to than to sit and listen to this lover's quarrel. Silently, he began to take some steps backwards, hoping the two warriors wouldn't notice.

Meanwhile, Chris was quickly running out of excuses to stall and Stephanie was quickly running out of patience. The Canadian was about to admit his fault when he caught sight of Randy slowly trying to escape.

He quickly decided that if he had to face Steph's wrath, he was not going to do it alone.

Randy didn't have much time to react before he felt a steel grip on his arm yank him back to the little triangle.

"Hey, what gives?" Randy whined, only to be met by a glare from Chris for trying to escape.

"While I'm still _young and beautiful, _Christopher." Stephanie demanded, making the older man sigh.

"Stephanie, I did _not _forget to go pick you up today."

"We talked on the phone last night and you promised you would!!" She shrieked, making both men wince. Even Al winced, and he wasn't that close.

"I did not forget, I'm serious! Besides, I have a perfectly good reason as to why I didn't go pick you up."

"Do tell, I'm just _dying _to hear it." Stephanie responded sarcastically.

"Well, it's really quite simple." Chris said in a calm voice. Silence fell for a few moments as both Stephanie and Randy waited to hear the grand explanation. Hell, if Randy was being forced to stay, he figured he might as well hear everything. Then if they tried killing each other during his show, he could have some grounds to base everything on.

"It's all _his _fault!" Chris suddenly shouted, pointing at Randy.

"_What? _Don't drag me into this!" Randy cried out, looking bewildered. "I had nothing to do with you not picking Stephanie up!"

"Oh yes you did Rundo! You got lost in the middle of nowhere without any gas, and I had to go pick you up! That was valuable time wasted!!"

"Well yeah, but you never told me you had to go pick her up!" Randy said indignantly. He looked at Stephanie and shook his head, almost snickering. "I think he just forgot about that little promise."

"Wait a minute, now wait just a minute here." Chris reasoned. "So I didn't exactly go pick you up, Stephanie.."

"There's no _exactly, _you didn't do it at all!"

"But come on, it's not that big of a deal. I mean, you can take a taxi, can't you?"

Randy winced as a kind of fire ignited in Stephanie's eyes.Chris had to step back to get out of her arm's reach, before she smacked the crap out of him.

So maybe his choice of wording wasn't exactly the best there.

"Come on Stephanie, relax!" He yelped, holding his hands up so she wouldn't connect if she did try to slap him. That thing carried some sting. "God, why are you acting like a big baby?"

"_I'm _acting like a baby? You have _some NERVE, _Chris Jericho! You forget to pick me up, and now, you _DARE _insult me?! Do you know who I am?!?!" She was now screeching, making Randy silently wonder how any man could take that abuse every day. He blushed as he realized that the three were getting looks from different people due to all the shouting.

"Oh, baby, I know exactly who you are. You're that one girl that I used to call a filthy.."

"Don't go there.." Randy warned, noting that Stephanie was seething.

"Fine.. you're Vince's youngest daughter, but you're just another backstage worker to him.. but to the boys, I don't know.. you may be pulling in overtime with them, huh babe?" He added with a smirk. "Hard little worker indeed.."

Meanwhile, Al had been thoroughly enjoying overhearing the argument brewing. It was absolutely perfect - Chris could blow whatever he had with Stephanie right then, and he'd move in for the kill, and claim her forever, thereby cementing himself into a life of success and luxury. The thought made a smirk grow on his face.

"What are you doing here?" A voice suddenly asked, startling him. As soon as he felt like he wasn't going to have a heart attack, he glared at the plastic nose staring back at him.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He sneered, gesturing over his shoulder towards the arguing trio. Trish took a glance in the direction, and then decided to stand next to him.

"Just be quiet, they don't know I'm here."

"You're such a sneak and a liar."

"No worse than they are."

"Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all."

Several yards away, Stephanie gasped at the insult that came out of Chris' mouth. She curled up her lip defiantly at him, while he just smirked.

"You know it's true."

"Jerk!"

"Big baby!"

"Jackass!"

"Slut!"

"ASSHOLE!"

"WHORE!"

"_Whoa, whoa, _guys, relax for just a -"

"_SHUT UP KID!!" _Came the shout from both Stephanie and Chris, making Randy frown. A worker then tugged on Randy's shirt, making him look down at the line-up for the show.

"Everything okay here?" The worker asked, looking at Stephanie and Chris who were glaring at each other. Randy nodded and patted the worker on the back.

"Everything's good, just having a psychiatric meeting over here, don't worry about it."

"Randy." Stephanie suddenly cut in, raising her head in a proud manner as she sneered at Chris. Randy was reminded of a queen looking at a peasant in disdain, and resisted the urge to laugh. "Let's go. I don't want to talk to this man anymore."

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second now." Chris said, matching Stephanie's tone with his arrogant one. He grabbed Randy by the arm and pulled him closer to him. "_Rundo _is my friend, so _Rundo _stays with me."

Randy sighed.

_I knew I should've left when I had the chance._

"Now both of you have to hold on just a second here." Randy said in an authoritative voice. "I am the General Manager tonight, and I am _not _some kind of yo-yo -"

He was cut off by Stephanie yanking his other arm and pulling him closer to her.

"Listen to him." She said, still glaring at her sometimes-I-want-you-sometimes-I-hate-you-kinda-sorta-yeah-but-not-really boyfriend. "He sounds like you already! You're a bad influence on Randy, don't you see he's still young and impressionable?!"

"Oh _give me a break._" Chris said, pulling Randy back in his direction. "I told you, he stays with _me._"

"And _I'm _telling you, that he stays with me!" She shot back.

"_Stop it! Both of you!!" _Randy shouted, pulling his poor arms free of the abuse. "I am the General Manager tonight, and since both of you can't seem to get along tonight, I am ordering both of you to stay the hell away from each other for this whole entire night!"

"You know what kid, that's not such a bad idea." Chris snorted. "I don't want to be associated with _trash _anyways. You're worse than Trish, but I guess you set the standard, huh Stephanie?"

"That's okay Chris, I'll just go back to Al." She responded in her fake sweet voice. "After all, he's much more of a _man _than you are."

She wished she had a camera on her right then, because the look on his face after that remark was priceless.

Meanwhile, Trish nudged Al.

"You need to go, she's gonna go looking for you."

"Did you hear that? They can't even stay together as a unit. This is going to be a hell of a lot easier than I thought." He said, an evil smirk creeping over his features, making Trish laugh.

"Well then.. go get 'em."

* * *

Half an hour later, as the battle royal was completely under way, Al watched as Stephanie furiously pounded on a helpless remote control, in what she called "channel surfing." 

He thought "venting" was more appropriate.

"Steph?" He asked cautiously. He knew she had a temper, and the last thing he wanted was to catch the heat for a certain Canadian's mistake.

"What?" She snapped. He winced a little at the tone.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She snapped again. "Drop it."

"Well, it's kinda hard to drop it when you're just gonna stay mad and I can't help you solve whatever problem you're having.."

"I just.. can't.. _STAND _him sometimes!" She cried out, throwing her remote at the floor in anger and startling him. "He thinks the world revolves around him!"

"What are you talking about?" He asked, silently wondering if Vince would make him pay for that remote.

"Jericho!! Who else?" She crossed her arms and pouted unconsciously. "Thinks he has all the answers, why I oughta show him.." She mumbled bitterly as she watched the battle royal, praying that someone, _anyone, _would throw him out.

"Well Steph.. if it's payback you want, I think I can help you out with that." Al said with a cunning smirk. She gave him a curious look, before he leaned towards her and whispered his impromptu plan in her ear. Her eyes lit up as she really smiled for the first time that day.

"I never knew you had such devious ideas." She said in a coy tone as he pulled away.

"Oh baby, you have no idea." He smirked, as she leaned forward and thought quietly to himself.

"I'll show him alright." She said under her voice as she saw him be eliminated. "I like your plan Al, and I must say, I never thought you could come up with these kind of things."

"So you like?"

"Oh yeah." She grinned. "Just a few little tweaks here and there, and he won't know what hit him."

* * *

Chris smirked to himself after he walked away from Trish. Now that was what he called having fun. He was busy trying to picture exactly how he was gonna run his show the following week, and who he was gonna get, when he caught sight of a familiar person. 

He sighed and decided he might as well go and say _something_. Yes, it would be awkward, but it'd be even more awkward to ignore what had been said, wouldn't it?

He quickly decided he was just gonna have to wing it and go with the flow.

"Hey." He said, clearing his throat as he rocked on his heels. Lita looked up at him and gave him a look of surprise.

"Chris, what are you doing here?" She asked, looking around as if someone might walk up on them.

"Nothing, I just wanted to tell you in case you haven't heard, I'm giving you a title shot next week.."

"Against Trish?"

"No.. against Shelton Benjamin." She stared at him blankly before he snickered, shaking his head. "Geez, I'm just kidding - of course you're facing Trish, why would I put you in a match against Shelton?"

"Somehow I wouldn't put it past you to do something like that as some kind of prank." She said, smirking back at him before looking back down at her magazine.

"So that's it?" He asked, confusion crossing his features. "Don't even say thank you? And here I thought we were friends.. I guess I'm just gonna have to go find someone new to hang out with."

"Of course we're friends.. I helped you out with the plan, didn't I?"

"Well we'll see about that one."

"Here's hoping." She stood up from where she had been sitting, still looking down at her magazine, obviously intending to leave. He frowned and reached out, not thinking twice about what he was doing.

His touch nothing short of startled her, primarily because she wasn't paying enough attention to have seen it coming. She looked at where his hand had grabbed her by the arm, then back up to meet his eyes, which surprisingly were filled with curiosity and a hint of concern.

"What is it?" She asked, slowly pulling her arm out of his grip. He frowned as she did, but other than that, didn't move or say anything. There was something about his gaze that was a tad bit unsettling to her - what it was, she couldn't quite tell..

"Chris?"

His frown turned to a look of discomfort as he released his grip on her arm. He hadn't always been the greatest at consoling people, but he figured he had to at least ask..

"Are you okay?"

The bewildered redhead just stared back at him. Now _that _was out of the blue - they were supposed to be focused on their big plan, and he was coming out with this?

"I'm fine, Chris."

"Are you really?" He repeated, his gaze never shifting or changing. She nodded slowly, tilting her head as she looked at him.

"Are you?"

"I'm good. I don't know, I just wanted to make sure.." He said, running a hand through his loose hair.

"Don't worry Chris, I'm fine, really." She said, noting the Canadian's growing discomfort with the topic. She patted him on the arm. "And I do appreciate the match. Hopefully I can get that thing off Trish, and you can go for the World Title."

"That would be cool." He said, smiling a little.

God how she loved that smile.

* * *

Meanwhile, Al and Stephanie were peeking out of their dressing room door. The coast was clear. 

"Okay, do you remember what you're doing?" Stephanie whispered, seeing Al nod from the corner of her eye. "Good. You have to move fast, I can only distract him for so long."

"I know, move fast, I got it."

"Do you remember which dressing room was his?"

"Yeah.. down two halls.. make a right. His door will have his name on it."

"Bingo.." She said, an evil smirk creeping on her face. "I'll show him what happens when you treat Stephanie McMahon like crap.. okay.. let's do it."

"How are you going to distract him?"

"I have my ways.. let me just put it to you this way. He loves to play games."

"I know that much." Al mumbled under his breath. Now there was something he hadn't missed in his short-lived vacation.

"Well babe, two can play his game."

* * *

"Did you see the look on her face when I called her a walking STD? That was priceless." Chris said, smirking as Lita laughed. The tension was gone for the most part, for which they were both thankful. 

"She is a walking STD.. who knows how many guys she's been with here in the back."

"It's kind of weird though, this animosity that she has with you. I mean, what's the point? You don't see me going around picking fights for the hell of it." He scoffed, then caught the look she was giving him. "Well.. anymore anyways."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." She laughed.

"Well, I should go see what Rundo's up to.. go see how bad he's ruining the show right now." He teased, poking her on the side. She scowled at him, making his smirk grow even wider.

"You're annoying. I don't know how Stephanie puts up with you."

"You're.. more annoying than I am, so you can't talk!" He said, catching himself before he uttered _"You're just jealous," _which had been on the tip of his tongue. "But anyways, I should get going."

"Yeah, me too. I've already wasted plenty of time here talking to you." She teased, making him roll his eyes.

"Whatever.." He said, pulling her close to him in a friendly hug. She was taken by surprise (for the second time by him), but she sighed contentedly and hugged him back.

It was this scene that Randy walked in on, coming back from his bout with Benoit and Edge. Quite frankly, he didn't care anymore who was champion and who wasn't - so long as it wasn't Triple H, he was more than satisfied.

And after seeing Chris in a tight hug with Lita, he _definitely _didn't care about the championship.

Associating his sudden and irrational annoyance / anger at the blonde Canadian with the fact that he was taken by Stephanie (in some kind of weird way), he walked up behind Chris and tapped him on the shoulder.

The older man turned and his face lit up at the sight of his young companion, who crossed his arms over his chest. Lita let go of Chris and smiled at him, easing Randy's temper for the most part.

"Rundo, I was just gonna go looking for you!" Chris said, pleased that the younger man had saved him a trip.

"Hey Randy, I was just about to get going."

"So soon? Seemed like the party was just getting underway." Randy said sarcastically, earning a strange look from both Lita and Chris.

"Well I have an early flight to catch tomorrow, so I should go and get into bed." She reasoned, grabbing her magazine from where she had mindlessly tossed it onto the table.

"Okay Li, take care."

"Bye Lita."

"Bye guys.. good luck."

Chris watched her walk off before turning back with a demanding air to Randy, who groaned loudly, knowing that the nagging was soon to start.

"What is it now?"

The Canadian was going to respond, on the verge of having a fantastic light bulb moment in his keen observations that only he could make, when something moved and caught the corner of his eye. Randy must've felt it as well, because they both turned to look at the same time.

Stephanie had to resist the urge to laugh as she walked towards them. Oh, she was good alright (she had always been _that damn good, _long before Triple H ever coined the phrase) _-_and she knew exactly how to dress to command attention, when she wanted it. And judging from the awe-struck and hungry looks on the faces of Randy and Chris, respectively, she had the attention.

It looked like she still had the touch.

"She is fucking hot." Randy said, but wasn't able to fully take in her new and improved sexy look before being elbowed hard in the ribs by Chris.

"Don't stare at her you _perv!" _The older man hissed, even though the sight of her dressed up was making him picture very inappropriate images of the things he wanted to do to her..

"Can I help you?" He said in the calmest voice he could muster up after she strolled up to him, as he attempted to maintain eye contact. If he looked down, he'd be at her mercy, and he absolutely refused to give in. (This of course, did not mean he sure as hell _didn't want to..) _"I thought you said you didn't want to talk to me right now.."

"Oh Chrissy, you always misunderstand everything I say.."

Hidden in the mob of referees and staff workers who were attempting to hold Edge and Benoit apart from each other, Trish seethed with anger at the display. She knew what Stephanie was trying to do - and if _anyone _could seduce _anyone, _it was most definitely _HER, _Trish Stratus, women's champion. _NOT _Stephanie McMahon.

Of course, the stupid plastic contraption on her face could have the potential of lowering her sex appeal..

Meanwhile, Stephanie was feeling like she was back in high school as she teased Chris, who was falling for her plan, hook, line, and sinker..

Hell, she even had Randy staring like an idiot. She smirked as she trailed a finger down Chris' chest; but by this time, he had had enough time to recover from her initial appearance, and forced himself to regain his composure.

"It's kind of hard to misunderstand someone who makes their point as emphatically as you did." He said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Well, maybe you're right." Stephanie said, sighing dramatically as she tossed her curled hair over her shoulders, showing off the shirt she was wearing which once again drew the attention of both men.

This was too easy.. she just hoped Al was coming through over on his end.

* * *

.. and coming through he was. 

It was a good thing too, because he almost didn't find Chris' locker room, much to his ego's chagrin. But once he found it, he had gone to work. He smirked as he took a step back to admire his work, but decided that it just wasn't enough...

Just then, his phone went off. He groaned loudly and pulled out his cell, glancing at the number. He sighed and flipped it open.

"Al speaking.. what do you mean where am I?" He said, picking up his spray can and shaking it. "I'm doing a little errand for Stephanie.. oh don't start Trish, this is actually a good thing. You wouldn't _believe _what she's making me do to his locker room.. you have a what? A match against Lita? .. So? .. Oh please, you're gonna win.."

* * *

Stephanie looked over Chris' shoulder for a quick second, but it was long enough to see Trish walking away. She turned back to Chris and gave him a knowing smirk; he just matched her with a puzzled look. 

"Well gang," Randy said smugly, "While you two argue your lives away, I'm going to go back to my dressing room and get all my stuff together so I can get out of here." The young man said, starting to walk off.

"Now just hang on a second there Rundo," Chris said, breaking into stridewith him. "You're not leaving me here alone with this psycho bitch who has more mood swings than a -"

"Who are you calling a psycho bitch?" Stephanie demanded, walking on the other side of Randy."_I'm _the one that should be leaving you, you can't even appreciate me even when I try to make peace between us!"

Randy rolled his eyes as he headed down the hallway towards his dressing room, with the two still arguing loudly behind him. He still surprised himself with the things he got himself into sometimes..

* * *

"Yeah, well listen, I have to go." Al said, pulling out a new spray can from his bag. He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. "Trish, come on, you're wasting my time. Why are you so worried about the match with Lita? .. You're worried about your nose? .. But I thought it wasn't really broken.. okay okay, geez, it doesn't matter, I get it already." He froze as he heard familiar voices in the background. "Oh shit, I think they're coming.. _what do you mean you stopped watching them?!"_

He heard the voices growing louder, and hung up on Trish in a panic, even though he knew he was going to catch grief for that one somewhere down the road. He ran over to the door, hoping that they weren't that close where he could still make a quick escape. He was about to try and leave when he heard their voices literally feet away from the door.

There was no time to run now.

He was going to have to turn to his last resort.

* * *

_"Would you stop shoving me?!" _

"Well if you stopped acting like a total ass then maybe I would!"

"Well maybe if you wouldn't have been a bitch to me this whole night, I'd be a bit nicer!"

"HA!" Stephanie snorted loudly. "You couldn't be nice even if your life depended -"

"_Would the two of you just shut the hell up?! _Good grief, you've been going back and forth forever, just SHUT UP!" Randy shouted, rubbing his temples. Bad enough he had to deal with Edge and Benoit, but he wasn't getting paid enough to deal with this too.

"Hey junior, don't steal my line." Chris chastised.

"He can take your line if he wants to. You haven't said it in a while, and it deserves to have an actual _talented _wrestler say it, like Randy."

"Why thank you Stephanie." Randy snickered, amused by the glare that Chris was sending Stephanie, who was pretending to ignore him. He pushed the door open to his dressing room, ready to get all his things and go.

"Are you guys.." The question died on Randy's lips ashe took in his dressing room, his jaw dropping in shock.

"What's -- wow." Stephanie said, stepping in beside Randy.

"Holy crap, someone totally trashed your dressing room." The Canadian said, stepping in on the other side of Randy.

Behind the sofa, out of sight and thankfully out of mind, was Al, on his hands and knees so as not to get caught. The words out of Chris' mouth gave him chills, and he closed his eyes as he realized the huge mistake he had made.

He had hit the wrong locker room.

Randy immediately turned around and leaned out into the hallway, shouting for security while Chris and Stephanie both took in the damage done. The sofas were destroyed, and they had been such nice sofas too. Not to mention someone had gone berserk with spraypaint - it was more like a room for kindergarteners from hell than for a General Manager.

Randy stepped back in with security on his heels, angrily spinning around to address them all.

"LOOK AT THIS MESS!" He shouted, stretching out his arms for more emphasis. "My dressing room is DESTROYED, and for what? I want you all to GO OUT THERE, and FIND me the person who -- what was that?" He said, stopping his rant as he looked around suspiciously. He glanced over at Chris and Stephanie, who just shrugged.

_Shit! _Al thought, his hand covering his mouth. He had tried to suppress a sneeze, but it hadn't quite worked.

"I didn't hear anything." A security guard the size of Batista said, making Randy frown. They all watched the younger man turn around and slowly take in his surroundings, before scowling and heading over to the sofa.

Al was holding his breath and wishing that Randy would send all the guards away, then maybe he could be able to leave. He wanted to venture a peek over the sofa, but knew that wasn't going to be such a bright idea.

He heard a throat clear behind him and gulped, slowly turning to look over his shoulder to look into the eyes of one Randy Orton.

Meanwhile, Chris and Stephanie had stepped just outside of the dressing room and were looking at the back of the door, where it said Chris' name.

After hearing all the shouting begin in the dressing room, Chris smirked.

"I have to tell you Stephanie, it's very nice." He said, running his fingers over the small plaque with his name on it.

"And you doubted my abilities." She smirked, reaching up and removing the plaque, revealing Randy's name underneath. "Shame on you, Christopher."

"Mind if I keep this, Princess?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"I'll take that as a yes."

".. BANISHED I SAID!" Came the angry shout inside of the dressing room. Chris snickered, before Stephanie elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Hey," He said indignantly, rubbing his side. "What'd you do.. oh hi Vince." He quickly said, not having noticed the boss himself approaching them.

"Jericho, Stephanie." Vince greeted, before turning his eyes towards Randy's dressing room door. "I heard there was something going on in Orton's office?"

"Yes, you should go in and take a look, Daddy." Stephanie said, starting to tear up. Even Chris was caught by surprise at the sight of the tears brewing in her eyes. "Al has embarrassed me!" She choked out, suddenly clinging to Chris.

The Canadian was surprised, but he was still very talented at improvising - and so he hugged her while she sobbed into his shirt.

"You should go see, Vince. It's bad." He said in a serious tone.

Vince, surprised like Chris had been, scowled and walked into the office. Stephanie immediately sobered up and sighed dramatically, wiping away her tears.

"That is some acting from you, my dear." Chris said, highly amused as he held her in his arms. She laughed and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.

"What can I say, I'm extremely talented. How else could I have pretended to be mad at you this whole evening?"

"I don't know, for a second I thought you were really pissed at me." He said, laughing to himself. "I can't believe you actually got him to trash Randy's locker room.."

"Please.. I have men wrapped around my finger."

"I beg to disagree."

She didn't have the chance to respond before the door to Randy's office was thrown back violently, with Al stepping out and Vince in tow. The two immediately parted and were content to watch.

"See!" Al cried out, pointing at the plaque on the door while he looked back at Vince and everyone else behind him. Randy somehow squeezed himself out of the dressing room and looked at Chris and Stephanie, all three with smirks on their faces. "It says Chris Jericho on the door!"

Vince looked at the door, and then looked back at Al. A promising son-in-law now appeared to be no more than scum. He shook his head in disgust.

"Did you not know how to read in elementary school?" Vince demanded.

"What are you talking about?!" Al shouted, before turning to look. "It says right here -- .." He was literally at a loss for words when the only thing staring back at him was _Randy Orton - General Manager. _"That.." He stammered, blinking to make sure he wasn't seeing things, ".. that was not there before."

"Daddy, just take him out of my sight!" Stephanie said, covering her eyes in shame as Chris wrapped an arm around her shoulders, offering his comfort. Al's eyes flashed at the display.

"She set me up! Stephanie set me up to destroy Randy's -"

"How DARE you accuse my daughter for your defacement of my property! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Vince snarled in the only way he could, making Al shut up. Meanwhile, Randy handed Stephanie two sheets of paper, keeping one for himself.She gave one to Chris, somehow still managing to look absolutely devastated.

"But look at them! They've been at each other's throats all damn day!" Al cried out desperately.

"Who?"

"Jericho and Stephanie!!"

Vince turned to look at the two, who in turn looked at each other. They gave each other puzzled looks and shrugged, looking back at Vince.

"We haven't argued once this entire day." Chris said in his sincerest tone. If Randy didn't know any better, he might have believed it.

"You liar! You insulted her and forgot to pick her up this morning, and she was using me to get back at you by trashing your locker room!"

Stephanie laughed out loud at that, shaking her head. Randy leaned back a little, impressed with the level of improvisation and acting on the part of his friends.

"Daddy, why would I ever send anyone to trash Chris' locker room? That was probably something I'd do like four years ago, but we're very close friends now. I'd never do that to him."

"And anyways, I didn't have a commitment to pick her up this morning, so your story makes no sense." Chris threw in, scrunching up his nose in confusion.

"Exactly, I never even asked Chris to pick me up."

"He actually had to pick me up." Randy added, deciding to join in on the fun.

"But --"

"Alright, enough!" Vince shouted, tired of hearing it all. "Bad enough that you destroyed one of my best offices, but now, you try to accuse my daughter? Randy, what was your decision as General Manager regarding this little issue?"

"Permanent banishment from all the shows, from this point forward." Randy stated, a smirk tugging on his lips.

"Security, you heard your General Manager!" Vince stated, as security seized Al, who glared at the three, wondering how in the hell they had one-upped him.

And then adding insult to injury, they took advantage of the fact that Vince had his back to them, and each showed Al their piece of paper. First Randy showed his, and then Stephanie, and finally, Chris, along with a huge smirk as he used his free arm to wrap around Stephanie's waist, pulling her tightly against him.

The total message read:

GAME

OVER

BITCH

Chris and Stephanie waited long enough for Al to digest the message, and when they saw his face go red with anger, they turned and added the exclamation point as they shared a hot kiss with each other. Randy just rolled his eyes, but amused himself by watching Al thrash against the security guards, in an effort to do something; what it was, Randy didn't know.

After all, it wasn't like he could take on either Randy or Chris.

Hell, he couldn't even take Stephanie.

"Get him out of here, and let me never see his face here ever again!" Vince roared, prompting security to drag Al down towards the exit, even with all his screaming and objections. He then turned back and noticed Stephanie and Chris still engaged in their kiss; he gave them a half-puzzled and half-disgusted look, before looking at Randy, who just shrugged.

"Don't ask, they're both kinda weird."

Hearing this, the two immediately pulled away from each other. Stephanie tossed her hair back over her shoulders and cleared her throat, while Chris blushed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Jericho, you have something you want to tell me?" Vince demanded.

"Uh.." Chris started. "Thanks for settling that issue."

"Besides that?"

"Would you like to help me decide how to handle that whole Edge/Benoit thing next week -"

"Besides that!"

Chris sighed, knowing that it was best to fess up. "I'm kinda seeing your daughter now, Vince."

"Kinda? Playing tonsil hockey is a kinda, huh?"

"Okay.. I'm seeing your daughter now, Vince."

"You know.. I always figured you had a thing for her."

Chris sighed as Randy and Stephanie laughed. "Haha.. am I that transparent?"

"At times." Vince said, patting him on the shoulder. "You better take care of my daughter Jericho, or I'll have you permanently ejected too."

"In other words, break my heart, and YOU'RE FIIIIIRED!!" Stephanie said, pinching Chris' cheek. He rolled his eyes and waved it off with his hand.

"Alright, I'll see you three next week. It's your show next week, Jericho. Make it good."

"You know it."

They watched as the boss walked off, and waited til he was out of sight. Once he was, Randy snickered.

"That was great, everything worked out almost too smoothly."

"Yup.. I can't believe he actually thought he could hide behind the corner and eavesdrop on me, and I wouldn't be able to tell." Stephanie rolled her eyes. "What kind of idiot did he take me to be?"

"Yeah, or Trish spying on us later on when you caught up with us. Man, you guys said they were predictable, but good grief.. I didn't think they'd be _that _predictable." Chris said thoughtfully.

"Randy, did you really run out of gas this morning?" Stephanie asked, turning towards the young man, who immediately scowled. She started laughing out loud, making Chris smirk.

"It's not funny." Randy said, only adding to their laughter. He frowned at them, once again reminding himself that he should've called Maven to go get him instead. He was _never _going to live that one down.

"Oh, Steph, I have to tell you something about Rundo." Chris said in a sing-song voice.

"Oooh, tell me tell me, I want all the dirt I can get." Stephanie said, clapping her hands together as she grinned. Randy groaned.

"Don't you guys have anything better to do? Like go back to the hotel or something?" Randy asked.

Chris and Stephanie stared at each other for a few moments.

"You know, that's a damn good idea."

"Sure is. Let's go."

Randy watched as the two headed down the hallway together, with him randomly poking her on the side and her smacking him on the shoulder each time he did.

_And he says Al and Trish are predictable._

* * *

"You know something Chris?" 

"What's that?"

"You call Triple H _The Nose _don't you?"

"Every now and then."

"I think Trish is trying to steal that nickname."

"Might be.. you know it's not over until we get her back right?"

"Oh, don't I know it. And you planning that match against Lita next week, that was pure genius on your part."

"I know.. I hope Lita wins."

"She better."

"Oh, speaking of Lita.." Chris said, a smirk creeping up on his face. "I think Ladies Man Rundo is a bit smitten by the lovely redhead."

"Is he now?" Stephanie asked, highly amused. "Well then.. you know what that means, don't you?"

"No, but somehow, I don't think it's any good."

"Looks like next week we're going to be pulling double duty." Stephanie said, her eyes sparkling as the elevator stopped on his floor. "Getting Trish with some sweet revenge, and getting Randy his girl."

"Oh man, that might be a stretch." Chris said, the door opening. "You are one devious young lady.."

"You have no idea." Stephanie gave him an innocent smile as she stepped out of the elevator, purposely adding more swing to her step. She didn't have to look behind her to know that Chris was right on her heels, his eyes.. well, who knew where his eyes were. All she knew was that they were on her.

And that was how she wanted things to stay.


	13. Long Overdue

Guess who's back.. back again

I is back.. tell a friend.. :D

lol.. okay. Okay. I know what you're thinking.. and you have every right to think it, let me tell you. It has been a YEAR, since I have touched this site, much less glanced at this story. Are there reasons for this long and very unannounced hiatus? Yes as a matter of fact, there are.. one reason just built on another, and before I knew it, a week late turned into a month, into a few months, and into a year, MORE than a year, and now here I am.. what can I say? Life happens sometimes.. if you want a real explanation, the list of excuses is nearby and I'll gladly share, just drop me an IM. ;)

Seriously though? I'm sorry for taking off like I did. I lost a lot – my motivation, inspiration, creativity, muse, time, etc etc.. but I'm back now, on a roll and about to be off to college in around six months now, and well, I can't leave without finishing this..

That's not to say that this will be the last part of this story.. oh no no no.. I think I owe a LITTLE more than that, yes? Look for a sequel, coming to a website near you.. ;)

If you read that, you rock the hizzouse. And yes, we're going back in time a year to wrap this thing up.. so if the details aren't correct about that particular show, my sincerest apologies lol.

I own nothing.

* * *

"Rundo my boy, you're getting _leid_ tonight." 

Randy glanced up as the door to his locker room was clicking shut, his look a mixture of amusement and curiosity as he caught his General Manager's cocky smirk. The younger man snickered as he continued lacing up his boots.

"Well I didn't really need _you _to tell me that, but thanks anyways.."

"Don't mind him, he's been saying that to everyone." Stephanie said, rolling her eyes as she flipped through her magazine next to Randy.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Chris asked, noticing her for the first time. "I thought you were busy doing some stuff for your dad."

"I was, and then I finished."

"So you came to hang out with Rundo instead of looking for your ridiculously hot boyfriend who happens to be General Manager tonight? You're not cheating on me are you?" He shot her a suspicious look.

"Damn, we're caught Randy." Stephanie sighed dramatically as she clapped the young man on the back. "It was good while it lasted though, you have serious potential to be a real pro."

Randy smirked. "Why thank you Stephanie, do drop by whenever you feel bored. After all, you can get _laid _too."

"Oh wow you two are just hilarious." Chris stated, rolling his eyes. "Absolutely hilarious. Well Rundo, if you wouldn't _mind, _I'd like a word with my girlfriend. In private." He added as he crossed his arms, his demeanor serious, though Stephanie caught the glint of mischief and amusement in his eye.

She nonchalantly picked up her magazine again and whispered to Randy (albeit not so softly), _"Say no." _

The young man next to her gave her a puzzled look and then looked up towards his friend and boss for the night. "I'm sorry Chris, but I'm going to have to say no to that."

"Well then I'm going to have to fire you."

"Well when you put it like that man, go ahead and take her." Randy said, shrugging as Stephanie gasped.

"Glad to see where I stand with you Randy." Stephanie said, giving his shoulder a slight shove as she stood up and headed over to a smirking Canadian. "What are you looking at, Jericho?" She demanded, tossing her gorgeous locks over her shoulder.

"You."

"May I ask why?"

"Cause I can." He said with a wink, before reaching out for her hand, which she readily gave without a second thought. "Come on, we have things to do and people to see."

"I think you're getting too used to having power." She said as they left Randy's locker room, hand-in-hand. His smirk grew, but he just shrugged.

"I _could _get used to this."

"I know, being in charge is like an addiction. I know how that game works all too well."

"I wasn't talking about being in charge.." He said as he stopped walking. She stopped as well and gave him a curious look. "There's something else here I could get very used to."

"Oh really? What would that be? Fetching me from Randy's locker room?" She asked in a clueless tone, though not being able to hide the traces of a smile that were creeping upon her features.

"As fun as that can be, it's not everything.." He gently pulled her closer and was leaning down for a kiss when he felt a poking on his shoulder. He sighed, almost relieving Stephanie as he turned to the worker who had tapped his shoulder.

"What do you want, junior?" He sneered, wrapping an arm loosely around Stephanie's waist. "Can't you see that I'm --"

"I'm really sorry to interrupt you sir," The young man stammered, before showing his clipboard to the annoyed Canadian. "But you did say when this package arrived to let you know --"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence before Chris had snatched the clipboard away from him. His eyes quickly skimmed over the notice, before his smirk returned in full swing.

"Good job monkey, remind me to put in a good word for you with the Bish." He said, handing back the clipboard to the worker. "Take that bad boy straight to my locker room, would you, junior?"

"Sure thing."

"What was that about?" Stephanie asked curiously as the worker hurried away. He just flashed her his charming smile, making her laugh. "Chris Jericho, what are you up to now?"

"Don't worry, you'll see."

* * *

"You have come up with some really shady things in your day, Jericho, but this takes the cake." Stephanie said, shaking her head as she held out a certain _Captain Charisma _outfit at arm's length to admire. "This is just unbelievable.." 

"You like it baby?"

"Like it?" She snorted, tossing it back over to him. "I _love _it.. seeing Christian wear that _heinosity _will about make my day."

He snickered. "Evil woman."

"You know you love it."

"You wish."

She leaned back in the leather sofa in his room, crossing her legs as she watched him. He was standing in the middle of the room, and was looking quite delicious in his suit and shades. His nose was scrunched up a bit as he gazed down at a list of matches in one hand, his free hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Oh yes, delicious indeed.

"So Chris..."

"Hmm?" He said absent-mindedly. She snickered to herself.

"You ready for tonight?"

"Mhmm."

"And for the plan?"

"Uh huh." He said, his eyes not moving from his list of matches.

"I think I'm gonna run and screw Kane now."

"That's great, Steph." He said in the same tone, before bringing the paper closer to his face. "Where the hell is the Women's Championship match on here?" He demanded to no one in particular.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and lifted herself slowly off the sofa, before strolling on over to her otherwise oblivious boyfriend. She was feeling rather playful at the moment, and was feeling like having some fun.

Especially at his expense..

"So tell me baby," His ears perked up at her change of tone, but he kept his eyes on the paper in front of him. He resisted the smirk from coming on his face as she traced the tips of her fingers teasingly around his broad shoulders while she walked around behind him. "You ready for the plan tonight or not?" She asked, teasing the skin on the back of his neck with her light touch.

"Well Stephanie, that depends," He replied in a low, husky tone, "Depends on which plan you're talking about."

"Gosh Chris, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." She said, beginning to massage his shoulders. He closed his eyes, relishing the moment. There weren't that many days that he wasn't sore from his very demanding job.

"Trish?"

"Yes, that plan."

"Steph, you know that's gonna take a while."

"You better make it good, Chris. It's all I ask." She said, patting his back and strolling back over to the sofa. She couldn't keep the grin off her face even if she tried. Chris opened his eyes and scowled, no longer feeling her body heat near his.

"Damn you and your teasing woman." He sneered.

"Oh Chrissy, it is not my fault that you want me so badly that a simple, innocent massage makes you go crazy." She shrugged innocently, ignoring the look he was sending her.

"You're so full of yourself, you know that?" He said in a disgusted tone.

"You're starting to rub off on me, what can I say? You're busy with your work anyways, don't mind little old me.."

He watched her smugly lean back into the sofa and close her eyes, that self-satisfied smirk on her face as she crossed her arms behind her head. He licked his lips as he slowly folded the sheet of paper with the matches into four rectangles, before putting it in his pocket as he sauntered on over to her.

_Two could play her little game.. _

_

* * *

_

_Hey Li, _

_I know I'm really busy and all, but what can I say? Being the highly popular super-duper star that I am, I'm being pulled in a thousand directions tonight, but I wanted to let you know that I wish you the BEST of luck tonight! Hope you dethrone that bitch, Trish Stratus.. man I even hate writing her name! But anyways, good luck and we'll be talking soon._

_CJ_

_PS - there's a certain stud who's very much into you. You read it here first._

Lita reread the note. And then reread it again.

And then one more time just for good measure.

She sighed and looked up, thoroughly confused and not really knowing what to make of the note. She frowned slightly, running her hand through her long red hair.

Honestly, a note? Was he _that _busy that he couldn't even bother to spend a minute of his time with her anymore to tell her this in person? She pushed the thought out of her mind, not liking the bitter feeling that flared in her chest because of it.

She left her locker room and wandered down the hallways, deciding she needed a walk and some time to clear her head before her big match. Her mind though kept going back to Chris, who had practically forgotten she existed over the last week. Normally he'd call and bother the hell out of her, but even so, she still welcomed the distraction.

But things were different. He had Stephanie now. She scowled and decided to think about something else -- like what exactly Chris had meant when he said someone was "very much into her," as he put it.

In the end, it didn't really matter -- because she was sure it wasn't him.

But then again -- he had proven to her what kind of games he was willing to play to get his way.

_Oh this is ridiculous. _She thought, shaking her head. She was so consumed by her thoughts that she didn't realize where she was headed and walked smack into someone, making both of them stumble back.

"Whoa Lita, I'm sorry." The blonde Canadian said, as he grinned at her, slightly embarrassed. "You okay?"

"Yeah Edge, don't worry about it." She said, shrugging.

"Hey I heard you got Trish tonight."

"Yup, going for some gold."

"That's cool, good luck with that."

"Thanks, I'll need it."

"Somehow I doubt that." He said, winking at her. She laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence there.."

* * *

**Meanwhile, not that far away... **

"Let me just tell you Rundo, only a true friend would do this for you, so I hope you appreciate it.."

"Yeah yeah yeah, do you see her yet?"

"Yeah I see her, she's talking to someone though."

"Who?"

"Edge I think."

Randy bit his tongue and frowned. _Why the hell was she talking to that sleaze?_

"Jealous, are we?" Randy immediately scowled and felt a blush coming on, but refused to look at his friend's mocking blue eyes.

"Jealous, me? Get the hell out of here, Jericho."

"Suit yourself, kid. She's over there, and I did send her that note giving her a heads up for you. I hope you're grateful junior, I got a million things to do and I'm taking my time out to do this for you --"

"How many times do you want me to thank you tonight?" Randy said, exasperated, before sighing heavily.

Chris rolled his eyes before snapping his gum. "Well get a move on, Rundo, before Edgeward takes your woman."

"But I'm not --"

He didn't get to finish before the Canadian shoved Randy forcefully out into the middle of the hallway, catching the young man completely by surprise. He sent the older man a glare before composing himself and taking a deep breath. He glanced over at Chris again who pointed in the direction of Edge and Lita. The younger man nodded and smoothed out his hair for about the 25th time that night, before donning his ladies man demeanor.

He then casually strolled on over to where the duo was, before clearing his throat. The laughing pair turned to him.

"Oh hey Randy, what's up?" Lita said, smiling at him. He smiled back.

"Oh nothing, just wanted to see if I could talk to you, in private?" He looked pointedly at Edge, who rolled his eyes.

"Sure, that's okay.. I'll see you later Edge?"

"Most definitely."

"So what's up Randy?" She said as the two walked off together. He draped an arm casually over her shoulders, making her look up at him in surprise.

That's not to say she didn't like it.

"Oh not much, just wanted to check up on my favorite diva and see how she's holding up. And wanted to get away from Chris and Stephanie too, those two drive me crazy sometimes." He said with a laugh, but then stopped when he noticed the look on her face. "What is it?" He asked, slightly confused. "Did I say something?"

"Nope, not at all." She replied, a little too quickly, but he just nodded. "Just haven't seen much of them, so I wouldn't know what you're going through." She forced a laugh.

"Trust me, you're not missing much.."

"He did send me a note though. I've been wondering what he meant by it." She said, pulling it out of her jeans and letting Randy take a look. "I'm most curious about the last line."

"A stud huh?" Randy coolly said, trying not to laugh by his friend's choice of words. Chris Jericho was a man of surprises all right.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well you don't sound that excited.."

"Hard to get excited, unless he was referring to himself."

The words stung Randy -- and he was not used to words stinging him, especially from a woman. It was now his turn to force a bitter laugh.

"Yeah, that Chris, he's something else isn't he." He stated, removing his arm from her shoulders, to her confusion. "Speaking of which, I think I should go find him."

"Oh, okay." She said, sighing. He thought he heard disappointment, and hesitated to turn and walk away. She noticed this though and gave him an inquisitive glance.

"Hey I was wondering.." He had to go through with this. He could not and would not go back to Chris and Stephanie without even trying with Lita.

"Yeah?"

"If you're not too busy next week, would you like to go out and maybe have dinner with me?"

She stopped walking at this and turned to look at him. He tilted his head a little as he gazed at her, for the first time fully understanding the lunacy that had overwhelmed his older Canadian friend with his scheming and planning over the last several months.

The things women could do..

While he kept his gaze on her, her mind was going a mile a minute. She wasn't dense - at least not when it came to Chris and his plans.

_A stud, huh?_ Looking at the tall, handsome young man in front of her, she'd have to agree.

_Randy Orton -- a stud indeed._

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Well.." He laughed, trying to get rid of the unease that had overtaken him. "I guess I am."

"Randy, you're a great friend and all.."

"Lita! You're on in five!" A coordinator yelled out to her from further down the hallway. She nodded before looking back up at him.

"Randy.." She didn't really know where to begin. She sure as hell hadn't seen this coming. "I don't know if I ever sent you the wrong message, but.. I just don't.. I can't.." She struggled to find the words to come to her, but she was still shocked that she never saw this coming.

"Hey.. I get it." He said calmly. "You like us as friends and you want to just stay friends right?"

"Yeah." She studied his eyes intently, but they were still friendly in their nature. He smirked then, and she was reminded of someone else's smirk that she had regrettably grown very attached to..

"It's okay, no harm done in me asking right?" He said in his charming manner, pulling her into him for a hug which she gladly returned.

"I'm so glad you understand, Randy." She sighed, satisfied with the turn of events. After all, she didn't want to string him along anymore than she had to.

"Oh I understand. I understand perfectly.."

* * *

Chris wasn't the type who was easily concerned for others, at least he hadn't been for a while. Of course, he blamed that fact on one Trish Stratus. Even so, that wouldn't help him now. He frowned as he contemplated how to approach this new situation, inwardly cursing his luck. 

"Listen Run -- Randy." He said, catching himself as he adjusted his shades and looked at the young man sitting in front of him. "I uh.. well, just wanted to let you know that.. well.." He scowled, before catching the look his girlfriend was giving him. "You know, you can't get 'em all kid.. at least not without jumping through hoops for them.." He returned Stephanie's look.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Jericho." The younger man said, waving it off with his hand, before sighing again. "Not like I'm gonna die a lonely man, so it's not a big deal.."

"Well that's good," Chris said, immediately brightening as he smiled proudly at his young friend and companion. He looked over smugly at Stephanie, who rolled her eyes. "I knew you'd come around, kid."

"Randy, you sure you don't want us to go through with --"

"No, don't worry about it. It's a lost cause, she's got it kinda bad for someone else." Randy stated, and very bitterly at that.

"Say what!" Chris and Stephanie both exclaimed together.

"Matt maybe?"

"Why the hell hasn't she told me?"

Randy rubbed at his temples as his two friends grilled him, and suddenly wished he would've just kept his mouth shut. Feeling an ongoing headache coming on, and an urgent need to shut them both up, he said the first name that came to his mind.

"It's Edge!"

Silence. He could feel the blank stares on him now, but he kept his gaze on the floor.

"Edge?" Stephanie repeated dumbly. She couldn't believe it.

"That greaseball? What the hell? She can do _so _much better.." Chris sneered. "You sure about this, junior?"

"Yeah, what can I say," He straightened, a scowl on his face. "I guess she has a thing for blonde Canadians.."

"You _sure _you don't want us to go through with this?"

"Absolutely. Trish got hers anyways didn't she? She lost to Lita tonight. There's no more need for the plans and games and all that crap anymore." He was met with silence, before he looked up at them. "Right?"

He was met with two very evil looking smirks.

"Rundo, if you thought that was _all_ Trish had coming to her, you're completely dilusional my friend."

"Seriously Randy, Trish is a work in progress."

"I see.." The young man was slightly taken aback, but opted to remain silent. His eyes focused on Chris, and he bit his lip so he wouldn't frown at the man. He couldn't help the slight pang of jealousy that ran through him, and it bothered him immensely that the older man was oblivious to it all.

And didn't care to boot.

"You okay kid? You're staring at me like I got a mark on my spotless face." Chris snickered.

"Oh get off your high horse." Stephanie retorted for Randy, earning a glare from her boyfriend.

"I'm sorry, was I speaking to you, woman?"

"Seems like you are now, aren't you?"

"There you go," he snorted, before continuing with every word dripping in sarcasm. "The whole world's gotta revolve around the Princess.."

"Oh you are one to talk Chris Jericho.."

Randy snickered at the display in front of him and figured that he just needed to let certain things go in his life. He had two crazy friends, maybe it wasn't in the cards for him to be with someone right then. Lord knew Chris and Stephanie would keep him busy enough, lest he have a girlfriend of his own on his case too.

He was sure he could handle it.

He just hoped he wouldn't lose his mind in the process..

* * *

**The end... for now. **

Well, that concludes that time period... if/when I pick it up again (I don't know if you guys really want me to?..) .. then it'll be (dun dun dun...) a YEAR later! lol.. because yes, lots of things have yet to be resolved.. but those slew of problems deserve their own story.

Plus I want to retouch with what I wanted the story to be about anyways.. yes, Chris and Stephanie finally got together, but will it last? Did he get what he really wanted out of the situation?.. Only time can tell. :D lol.. and then there's the rest of the drama with Randy and Lita, and is Trish still around? What kinda crazy crap will these kids (I guess me?) come up with next? lol.

Well let me know what you guys think. In any case, thanks for everything.. this has been a BLAST writing, and I'm sorry again about the hiatus.. mucho love to you guys ;)


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